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tijp  Uibrarg  of 


BV  176  .P332  1900 
Pattison,  T.  Harwood  1838- 

1904. 
Public  worship 


PUBLIC  WORSHIP 


HELPFUL   BOOKS 

By  the  Same  Author 


The  History'  of  the  English 
Bible.  ^ 

121110,  281  pp.     Price,  $1.25. 

The  Making  of  the  Sermon. 
121110,  402  pp.     Price,  $1.50. 


Sent  on  Receipt  of  price. 
Am.  Baptist  Publication  Society 

PHILADELPHIA 

BOSTON   NEW  YORK   CHICAGO   ST.  LOUIS 

DALLAS        ATLANTA 


Public  Worship 


BY 

T.  HARWOOD  PATTISON 

'Professor  of  Homiletics  and  Tastoral  Theoloi^y  in  the 
T^ocliester  Theological  Seminarj/ 

AUTHOR   OF 

"  The  CMaking  of  the  Sermon,"  "  The  History  of  the  English 
Hible,"  etc. 


He  was  greatly  interested  in  the  effort  after  greater  beauty  of 

holiness,  greater  attention  to  fitness  and  perfection  of  form  in  the 

expression  of  religions  feeling. 

— CMcmoir  of  Trinctpal  John  Caird 


PHILADELPHIA 

American  JBaptist  iPubUcation  Society 
1900 


Copyright  igoo  by  the 
American  Baptist  Publication  Society 


ifrom  tbc  Society's  own  press 


♦ 


PREFACE 


There  are  three  strategic  points  in  the  work  of 
the  minister ;  and  unless  he  gives  to  each  of  these 
its  due  weight  he  can  scarcely  hope  to  make  full 
proof  of  his  ministry.  Of  these  the  first  is  the  pas- 
torate, the  second  the  religious  service,  and  the 
third  the  sermon.  No  doubt  the  predominance  of 
the  sermon  in  Christian  worship  from  the  begin- 
ning has  given  to  the  service  its  peculiar  character. 
The  Protestant  Reformation  laid  great  emphasis 
upon  the  discourse,  and  Vinet  scarcely  exaggerates 
when  he  says,  "  With  the  Catholics,  preaching  has 
little  place  ;  it  is  almost  everything  with  us."  In 
the  case  of  the  fi;ee  Churches,  which  are  not  bound 
by  any  liturgical  form,  this  is  especially  true.  My 
purpose  in  this  book  is  to  give  to  all  the  parts  of 
Public  Worship  their  due  importance.  It  is  intended 
to  be  complementary  to  "  The  Making  of  the  Ser- 
mon," and  to  distribute  the  emphasis  which  an  ex- 
clusive study  of  Homiletics  might  be  tempted  to 
concentrate  on  the  discourse.  We  often  hear  it 
said  that  the  sermon  without  the  preacher  is  the 
gun  without  the  man  at  the  back  of  it.  With  equal 
justice  it  may  be  added  that  the  sermon  severed 
from  the  entire  service  is  shorn  of  a  large  measure 
of  its  strength.     Not  alone  is  the  picture  robbed  of 


Vi  PREFACE 

its  frame;  even  the  picture  itself  is  marred  and  dis- 
figured. It  is  the  peculiar  virtue  of  the  Christian 
religion  "that  worship  and  instruction  are  co-ordi- 
nate one  to  the  other,  they  are  interpreted  one  by 
the  other,  and  so  form  a  whole."  Especially  is  there 
need  that  we  lay  this  truth  to  heart  at  the  present 
time.  The  peril  with  the  service  in  which  a  ven- 
erable liturgy  is  made  prominent  is  that  too  much 
attention  is  attached  to  the  church  ;  the  peril  with 
the  non-liturgical  service  is  that  too  much  responsi- 
bility is  laid  on  the  minister  who  officiates.  The 
one  is  as  mischievous  as  the  other  if  it  does  any, 
even  the  least,  dishonor  to  the  simplicity  that  is  in 
Christ.  T.  H.  P. 

Rochester,  May  i,  1900. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  PUBLIC  WORSHIP  DEFINED  AND  DESCRIBED  i 

II.  THE  Congregation ig 

III.  The  public  Service 43 

IV.  Congregational  response 65 

V.  PUBLIC  prayer 87- 

VI.  Public  prayer  (Continued) 107 

VII.  Public  Prayer  (Concluded) 127 

VIII.  The  Reading  OF  the  Scriptures 141 

IX.  MUSIC  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SERVICE 157 

X.  MUSIC  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SERVICE  (Concluded)  .  177 

XI.  THE  SUNDAY   EVENING  SERVICE  ......  igg 

XII.  THE  BAPTISM  SERVICE 2ig 

XIII.  THE  LORD'S  SUPPER   SERVICE 22g 

XIV.  THE  PRAYER   MEETING 245 


PUBLIC  WORSHIP  DEFINED  AND 
DESCRIBED 


SUMMARY 


1.  Public  worship  includes  the  entire  service. 

2.  Too  often  the  other  parts  of  the  service  are  put  below  the 

sermon. 

3.  We  must  resolve  never  to  do  this. 

4.  in  urging  the  people  to  attend  church,  lay  stress  on  the 

fact  that  we  meet  together  for  worship. 

5.  Remember  that  in  any  part  of  the  service  a  blessing  may 

be  found. 
CONSIDER  THE  TERM  "PUBLIC  WORSHIP." 

1.  Worship,     (i)  As  to  worship   in   general;    (2)  As  to 

Christian  worship.  It  includes:  a.  A  true  apprecia- 
tion of  God  ;  b.  A  recognition  of  the  spiritual  char- 
acter of  the  worshiper. 

2.  Public  worship.    Two  features:    (i)  The  special  pres- 

ence of  Christ;  (2)  The  presence  of  others;  a  Lim- 
iting and  h.  enlarging  the  sphere  of  worship. 
NOTE.  The  Authority  for  Public  Worship. 

1.  Divine  command. 

2.  Human  instinct. 

.   CONSIDER    THE    PROMINENT    FEATURES    IN   PUBLIC 
WORSHIP. 

1.  It  should   be  devout:    (i)  Preparation  of    leader;    (2) 

Services  a  heavenward  aspect;  (3)  Services  decor- 
ous ;  (4)  Services  solemn. 

2.  it  should  be  inspiring  :    (i)  True  worship  is  full  of  life  ; 

(2)  This  is  the  special  province  of  church  music. 

3.  It  should  be  intelligent. 

4.  It  should  be  restful :     (i)  Leader  to  avoid  impropriety  ; 

(2)  Worship  simple  and  fervid;  (3)  Worship  har- 
monious. 


PUBLIC  WORSHIP  DEFINED  AND   DESCRIBED 

1.  Under  Public  Worship  we  include  the  entire 
service,  from  the  invocation  to  the  benediction. 
The  sermon  should  not  dominate  all  other  parts  of 
the  service,  as  though  it  were  a  mountain  and  they 
only  a  plain  lying  in  its  shadow.  The  other  parts 
of  the  service  should  not  dwarf  the  sermon,  and  by 
their  number  or  length  leave  no  time  or  vigor  for 
the  full  delivery  of  its  message.  The  Protestant 
Reformation  necessarily  laid  much  stress  upon 
preaching. 

2.  By  the  very  attitude  that  it  assumed  that 
great  movement  was  put  on  the  defensive,  and 
therefore  needed  to  support  its  claims  by  a  constant 
appeal  to  Scripture.  "  The  Christian  congrega- 
tion," Martin  Luther  asserted,  "should  never  as- 
semble except  the  word  of  God  be  preached." 
The  same  emphatic  insistence  upon  the  sermon 
characterized  the  churches  which,  a  century  or  so 
later,  broke  away  from  a  liturgy  and  held  by  a  freer 
form  of  worship.  The  Puritan,  in  all  lands,  has 
been  earnest  in  his  plea  for  the  sermon  ;  and  it 
would  be  idle  to  assert  that  in  doing  this  he  has  not 
frequently  neglected  equally  important  parts  of  the 
service.     "In  other  countries,"  said  Isaac  Taylor, 

3 


4  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

"the  bell  calls  people  to  worship  ;  in  Scotland  it 
calls  them  to  a  preachment."  Charles  Kingsley, 
"  with  a  sneer  unworthy  both  of  his  genius  and  his 
character,"  found  fault  with  tlie  DissenterS  of  Eng- 
land because  they  "went  to  the  church  to  hear 
sermons." 

3.  At  the  present  time  the  disposition  on  the  part 
of  the  non-liturgical  churches  is  toward  a  reason- 
able  enrichment  of  the  service.  It  was  in  the 
interest  of  the  sermon,  as  much  as  of  any  other 
part  of  the  public  worship  of  God,  that  Phillips 
Brooks  declared  :  "  You  never  can  make  a  ser- 
mon what  it  ought  to  be  if  you  consider  it  alone. 
The  service  that  accompanies  it,  the  prayer  and 
praise,  must  have  their  influence  upon  it."^ 

4.  It  is  well  for  us,  at  the  outset,  to  recognize  the 
importance  of  each  part  of  the  church  service,  and 
also  of  the  act  of  worship  as  a  whole.  Not  to  hear 
a  sermon  any  more  than  to  read  the  Bible,  to  sing, 
or  to  pray,  does  the  congregation  come  together. 
It  meets  to  do  all  these  as  conducive  to  public  wor- 
ship.'' In  urging  people  to  attend  church  it  will  be 
well  for  us  to  lay  stress  upon  the  fact  that  we  meet 
for  this  purpose  mainly.  "I  remember,"  said  Dr. 
R.  W.  Dale,  "  that  before  I  was  a  minister  myself, 
I  was  very  much  astonished  when  I  heard  ministers 
reasoning  with  their  congregations  about  the  duty 
of  attending  public  worship  regularly.  I  used  to 
think  that  if  I  were  a  preacher  and  could  not  make 
my  sermons  good  enough  and  attractive  enough  to 

1  "  Yale  Lectures,"  p.  142.  sps  gj 


PUBLIC  WORSHIP  DEFINED  AND   DESCRIBED      5 

induce  people  to  come  and  listen  to  me  in  crowds, 
and  because  they  could  not  stop  away,  I  should 
shrink  from  the  humiliation  of  implicitly  confessing 
my  inefficiency  by  imploring  them  to  come.  That 
was  proof  of  my  folly  and  ignorance.  As  if  Chris- 
tian people  were  to  meet  together  principally  to  lis- 
ten to  a  sermon,"  ' 

5.  In  what  part  of  the  service  may  not  a  blessing 
be  found  ?  Insisting  upon  the  care  that  should  be 
taken  in  the  selection  of  the  hymns  to  be  sung,  Mr. 
Spurgeon  recalls  the  circumstance  that  an  "  un- 
godly stranger  stepping  into  one  of  our  services,  at 
Exeter  Hall,  was  brought  to  the  cross  by  the  words 
of  Wesley's  verse  :  '  Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul.'  " 
A  country  boy  unused  to  public  worship  goes  to  a 
church  in  Boston,  and  wearied  with  his  first  week 
of  work  in  the  city,  sleeps  through  the  entire  serv- 
ice. The  closing  prayer  was  almost  spoken  when 
the  hand  of  sleep  was  lifted  from  him.  His  open- 
ing eyes  were  upon  a  devout  congregation,  and  his 
ears  caught  the  four  closing  words  :  "  For  Christ's 
sake.  Amen."  "That  sleeper  was  Dwight  L. 
Moody,  and  the  last  words  of  that  closing  prayer, 
leading  to  his  conversion,  became  the  motto  of  a 
life  which  alone  would  be  a  glory  to  any  church  and 
pastor  ;  a  motto  very  simple,  but  covering  time  and 
eternity  :   '  For  Christ's  sake.  Amen.'  "  ^ 

I.  We  may  first  consider  the  term  "  Public  Wor- 
ship."    These  two  words  need  to  be  looked  at  in 

'  R.  W.  Dale,  D;  D.,  "  The  Communion  of  Saints,"  p.  23. 
2  "Life  of  E.  N.  Kirk.  D.  D  ,"  p.  225. 


6  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

their  intention  and  extent.  Evidently  the  second 
of  them  is  limited  by  the  first  ;  but  we  shall  do 
well  to  think,  before  going  any  farther,  of 

I.  What  is  understood  by  "  worship." 

(i)  As  to  worship  in  general,  then,  a  good  deal 
can  be  learned  from  the  mere  word  itself.  It  is  a 
contraction  of  the  old  Saxon  noun  "  worth-ship," 
which  was  applied  to  a  person  in  recognition  of  the 
good  qualities  or  worth  which  he  was  supposed  to 
possess.  Sometimes  more  honored  in  the  breach 
than  the  observance,  it  still  survives  in  the  title 
given  the  English  mayor,  "Your  Worship,"  as 
"  Your  Honor  "  is  used  as  a  figure  of  speech  in 
America.  "Then  the  noun  came  to  be  in  the 
verbal  form,^  and  to  worship  was  to  recognize  the 
worth  of  the  person  to  whom  the  worship  is  ad- 
dressed. To  worship  God  is  to  recognize  in  ap- 
propriate ways  the  worth  that  is  in  him."*  The 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  preserving  this  old  mean- 
ing of  the  word  "  worthy,"  reminds  the  worshipers 
that  they  assemble  "  to  set  forth  God's  most 
worthy  praise  "  ;  and  when  we  meet  together  for 
worship  it  is,  first  of  all,  to  recognize  the  worth  of 
the  God  in  whose  honor  it  is  celebrated. 

(2)  In  Christian  worship  there  is  a  double  modi- 
fication of  this  idea. 

a.  We  must  have  a  true  appreciation  of  God  as 
"  the  Father  of  our  spirits."'  "  God  is  a  Spirit," 
said  Jesus  to  the  woman  of  Samaria,  in  the  discourse 
which  still  remains  our  fullest  authority  on  the  true 

'Luke  14:  10.  'Dr.  John  Hall.  3  Heb.  12  :  g. 


PUBLIC  WORSHIP  DEFINED  AND   DESCRIBED      7 

character  of  worship,  "and  they  that  worship  him 
must  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth."  ^  "  God 
is  the  mind  of  the  universe.  Force,  law,  harmony, 
all  this  is  of  God,  And  yet  remark  the  coldness  of 
this,  for  he  is  thus  revealed  only  as  a  God  for  the 
intellect,  not  for  the  heart.  Therefore  for  the  heart 
he  is  revealed  as  a  Father."^  Here,  then,  is  the 
revelation  of  God  by  Jesus  which  is  the  very  core 
of  our  Christian  worship 

b.  A  further  modification  of  the  general  idea  of 
worship  is  found  in  the  spiritual  character  of  the 
worshiper.  The  true  worshiper  "shall  worship 
the  Father  in  spirit  and  truth  ;  for  such  doth  the 
Father  seek  to  be  his  worshippers."*  The  voice 
which  spoke  this  was  the  voice  of  the  prophet 
rather  than  of  the  priest.*  To  worship  the  Lord  in 
"  the  beauty  of  holiness  "  could  never  again  be 
made  to  mean  to  worship  him  "in  holy  array. "^ 
It  was  not  the  Pharisee,  correct  in  dress  and  posture, 
but  the  penitent  publican,  who  went  down  to  his 
home  justified.*^  To  pray  "  lifting  up  holy  hands 
without  wrath  and  doubting"'  is  to  pray  indeed. 
The  state  of  heart  of  the  worshiper  will  largely 
determine  the  acceptableness  of  his  worship  before^ 
God. 

2.  We  pass  on  to  inquire  what  is  meant  by  public 
worship,  and  we  notice  that  it  must  have  two  dis- 
tinguishing features. 


'John  4  :  24.  ^  F.  W.  Robertson,  two  sermons  on  "Spiritual  Worship." 

''John4:25.  ■•  Isa.  1 :  11-17.  •'' i  Chron.  16  :  29. 

^Luke  18  :  14.  ^  i  Tim.  2  :  8. 


8  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

(i)  The  special  presence  of  Christ.  It  is  only 
when  we  meet  one  with  another  that  we  can 
claim  the  gracious  promise  of  our  divine  Master : 
'*  For  where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in 
my  name,  there  am  1  in  the  midst  of  them."  ^  "  hi 
entering  into  perfect  union  with  each  other  they 
enter  into  perfect  union  with  him.  The  intimacy 
of  their  union  with  each  other  determines  the  inti- 
macy of  their  union  with  himself.  .  .  The  church 
is  dear  to  us  because  in  the  church  is  granted  to  us 
the  special  manifestation  of  the  glory  and  goodness 
of  God."  '  To  be  assured  of  the  presence  of  Christ 
should  be  the  first — shall  we  not  say,  the  chief  ? — 
ambition  of  the  minister.  Graduating  from  the  semi- 
nary. Dr.  R.  S.  Storrs  heard  words  from  an  hon- 
ored and  eminent  pastor  in  Boston  (Dr.  N.  Adams) 
which  he  never  forgot,  and  which  we  also  do  well  to 
lay  to  heart :  "  In  a  certain  congregation  there  was 
a  hearer  of  whose  presence  the  speaker  was  not 
aware  during  the  delivery  of  his  sermon.  When 
the  fact  of  that  hearer's  presence  was  made  known 
to  him  it  had  a  great  effect  upon  the  preacher.  .  . 
Who  was  the  preacher,  and  who  this  hearer  ?  The 
preacher,  I  doubt  not,  may  have  been  any  young 
minister  present,  and  the  hearer  was  Jesus  Christ. 
When  the  great  and  the  learned  and  the  honored  of 
earth  come  .to  hear  you  ;  when  we  meet  a  few  of 
our  flock  in  that  distant  schoolhouse  on  a  dark  and 
stormy  night,  in  the  bungalow,  or  under  the  plantain 
or  the  palm,  or  in  those  South  African  huts,  where 

1  Matt.  i8  :  20.        -  Dr.  R.  W.  Dale,  "  The  Communion  of  Saints." 


PUBLIC  WORSHIP   DEFINED  AND   DESCRIBED     9 

you  must  creep  like  an  animal  to  get  in,  remember 
that  you  cannot  speak  in  liis  name  but  you  will 
speak  in  his  ear."  ^ 

(2)  The  second  feature  which  distinguishes  public 
worship  is  the  presence  of  others.  Worship  is  con- 
gregational. It  is  common  in  the  sense  in  which 
that  word  is  used  in  the  phrase,  "The  Book  of 
Common  Prayer." 

This  fact  both  limits  and  enlarges  the  sphere  of 
worship, 

a.  It  limits  it,  since  because  of  it  the  worship  be- 
comes not  private  and  peculiar  to  any  one  person  ; 
but,  so  far  as  it  is  possible  to  make  it  so,  worship  in 
which  all  may  join.  The  purely  personal  element 
must  be  made  subordinate.  There  are  many  hymns 
which  are  suitable  to  the  heart  in  its  solitude,  or  to 
the  family  circle  around  the  piano  at  home,  or  even 
to  the  prayer  meeting,  which  are  entirely  out  of 
place  when  in  the  promiscuous  congregation  every- 
thing that  hath  breath  is  invited  to  praise  the  Lord. 
So  of  petitions  and  confessions  to  be  used  in  prayer, 
and  so  of  many  chapters  in  the  Bible,  if  our  com- 
mon worship  is  more  than  any  lonely  altar  can  ex- 
press, it  is  also  less. 

h.  But  the  fact  that  the  worship  with  which  we 
are  dealing  is  public,  also  enlarges  its  scope.  We 
join  in  the  rich  and  varied  devotion  of  the  whole 
congregation.  For  acceptable  worship  we  need 
each  of  us  a  heart  of  all  conditions.  It  must  be  our 
aim  "to  pray  with  the  sorrowful  for  comfort,  and 

1  Dr.  R.  S.  Storrs,  "  Preaching  Without  Notes,"  pp.  183,  184. 


10  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

with  the  guilty  for  mercy,  to  offer  thanksgiving 
with  those  whose  hearts  are  filled  with  music  and 
whose  homes  are  bright  with  joy.  Some  part  of  the 
service  should  touch  and  satisfy  each  worshiper."  ' 
hi  her  declining  years,  when  perhaps  the  memories 
of  her  early  religious  fervor  frequently  came  back 
to  her  mind,  George  Eliot  wrote  to  a  friend :  "If 
there  were  no  reasons  against  my  following  such 
an  inclination,  1  should  go  to  church  or  chapel  con- 
stantly for  the  sake  of  the  delightful  emotions  of 
fellowship  which  come  over  me  in  religious  assem- 
blies, the  very  nature  of  such  assemblies  being  the 
recognition  of  a  binding  belief,  or  spiritual  law, 
which  is  to  lift  us  into  willing  obedience  and  save 
us  from  the  slavery  of  unregulated  passion  or  im- 
pulse." Unconsciously  to  herself,  the  writer  by 
these  words  echoed  the  apostolic  injunction  :  "  Not 
forsaking  the  assembling  of  ourselves  together,  as 
the  custom  of  some  is,  but  exhorting  one  another ; 
and  so  much  the  more,  as  ye  see  the  day  drawing 
near." 

NOTE.  At  this  point  it  may  be  well  for  us  to 
notice  upon  what  the  authority  for  public  worship 
rests. 

1.  it  is  based  upon  divine  command.  The  follow- 
ing passages  are  only  a  few  among  many  which 
might  be  cited  :  Exod.  34  :  14  ;  Deut.  26  :  10 ; 
2  Kings  17  :  36  ;  Ps.  95  :  6  ;  Acts  2  :  42  ;  Col.  3  : 
16  ;  Heb.  3  :  12-14. 

2.  It  also  rests  upon  our  own   human   instinct. 

1  Dr.  Dale. 


PUBLIC   WORSHIP   DEFINED  AND   DESCRIBED    1 1 

Worship  is  the  satisfaction  of  a  deep-seated  im- 
pulse of  our  nature.  To  believe  in  a  God  is  to  feel 
need,  gratitude,  yearning,  aspiration.  To  all  these 
worship  gives  such  an  expression  as  will  be  sought 
for  elsewhere  in  vain.  There  is  sound  sense  in 
the  suggestion  of  Doctor  Tucker :  "  The  Puritan 
churches  have  made  their  uninterrupted  appeal  for 
many  generations  to  the  reason  and  conscience. 
Why  should  they  not  also  make  the  appeal  more 
distinctively  and  impressively  to  the  instinct  of  rev- 
erence and  to  the  craving  for  worship  ?  "  ^  By  no 
other  human  act  can  we  do  such  full  justice  to 
Augustine's  golden  words:  "O  Lord,  thou  madest 
us  for  thyself,  and  our  heart  is  restless  until  it  re- 
pose in  thee."  And  in  no  other  part  of  our  religious 
life  do  we  more  evidently  engage 

In  such  rich  offices  as  suit 

The  full-grown  energies  of  heaven 

II.  We  are  now  prepared  to  glance  at  some 
prominent  features  in  Public  Worship. 

I.  First  among  these  we  place  that  reverence 
which  is  so  prominent  in  the  worship  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testament  ;  and  we  say  that  public  wor- 
ship should  be  devout.  This  is  what  moved  Jacob 
when  he  awakened  from  his  dream  at  Bethel  to  ex- 
claim, "  How  dreadful  is  this  place  !  "  Mt  prompted 
the  psalmist  to  sing,  "Holiness  becometh  thine 
house,  O  Lord,  for  evermore"  ;  ^  in  the  presence 

1  Tucker,  "  The  Making-  and  the  Unmaking  of  the  Preacher,"  p.  126. 
*  Gen.  28  :  17.  ^  Ps.  93  :  5. 


12  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

of  the  vision  of  the  Lord  in  his  majesty,  this 
brought  from  Isaiah  the  cry,  "Woe  is  me!  for  I 
am  undone  ;  .  .  for  mine  eyes  have  seen  the  King, 
the  Lord  of  hosts."  ^  And  this  it  is  which  inspires 
the  four  living  creatures  in  the  Revelation  who 
have  no  rest  day  and  night,  saying,  "Holy,  holy, 
holy,  is  the  Lord  God,  the  Almighty,  which  was, 
and  which  is,  and  which  is  to  come."  ^ 

To  cherish  this  devout  feeling  in  his  own  heart 
and  in  the  heart  of  the  congregation  must  be  the 
first  endeavor  of  the  minister.  The  essential  idea 
of  the  church,  Wendell  Phillips  held  to  be,  "the 
stated  expression  of  devotional  feeling."  Praise 
and  prayer  and  preaching  should  all  promote  this. 

In  our  own  time  reverence  is  lamentably  lacking 
in  many  religious  services,  and  it  is  probable  that  to 
this  fact,  in  part,  we  must  ascribe  the  trend  toward 
liturgical  forms  of  worship  which,  whatever  may  be 
said  of  the  spirit,  anyhow  preserve  an  outward  def- 
erence in  the  letter.  And  yet  when  one  recalls  the 
services  in  which  this  spirit  of  reverence  was  most 
prominent,  it  is  only  fair  to  confess  that  they  have 
been  oftener  than  not  the  services  of  the  free 
churches  rather  than  those  which  are  confined 
within  the  lines  of  a  prescribed  liturgy.  This  needs 
to  be  said  in  order  to  insist  that  in  this  matter,  as  in 
so  many  others,  the  minister  is  bound  to  be  an  ex- 
ample to  his  congregation.  On  him  very  largely 
will  it  rest  to  make  the  public  worship  devout. 

(i)  Previous  to  the  service  let  him  prepare  his 

1  Isa.  6:5.  2  Rev.  4  :  8. 


PUBLIC  WORSHIP  DEFINED  AND   DESCRIBED    1 3 

spiritual  nature  by  private  prayer  and  meditation, 
so  that  he  can  say,  like  David,  "  My  heart  is  fixed, 
O  God,  my  heart  is  fixed."  ^ 

(2)  During  the  whole  conduct  of  public  worship 
let  him  keep  in  mind  that  the  services  have  a 
heavenward  as  well  as  an  earthward  aspect.  He 
stands  in  the  pulpit,  as  it  were,  to  be  the  exponent 
of  each  of  tliese.  With  angels  and  archangels,  as 
well  as  with  men  and  women  like  himself,  he  wor- 
ships God. 

(3)  At  the  bidding  of  no  transient  clamor  for  the 
sensational  should  he  allow  himself  to  forget  the 
decorum  which  ought  to  mark  his  conduct  of  the 
service.  Not  reverence  alone,  but  even  the  sim- 
plest canon  of  good  taste  is  violated  by  the  minister 
of  whom  a  Boston  paper  reports  that,  on  a  national 
anniversary,  one  feature  in  the  morning  worship 
was  "  the  playing  of  '  The  Star  Spangled  Banner ' 
softly  on  the  organ  while  the  pastor  was  praying." 

(4)  By  his  carriage,  his  tone,  his  whole  conduct,  he 
must  impress  the  congregation  with  a  solemn  sense 
of  the  most  responsible  position  which  he  occupies 
as  he  leads  them  in  their  devotions.  Let  him  pray 
to  be  gifted  at  such  times  with  "  a  nature  at  once  es- 
sentially spiritual,  and  withal  truly  human  in  its 
sympathies."  ^ 

2.  Again,  public  worship  should  be  inspiring. 

(i)  True  worship  is  stimulating  and  elevating, 
because  it  is  affluent  in  life.  "  This  seems  to  be 
the  condition  on  which  the    Jewish  prayer  book 

1  Ps.  57  :  7.  *  "  Life  of  Robertson  of  Irvine,"  p.  352. 


14  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

(the  Psalter)  insists  beyond  all  others,  the  as- 
sociation of  the  object  of  our  worship  with  the 
idea  of  life.  .  .  The  one  thing  on  which  it  in- 
sists is,  that  its  God  shall  be  a  living  God.  That 
for  which  the  soul  of  the  psalmist  thirsts  is  a  foun- 
tain of  life,  an  object  which,  by  community  of  life, 
can  commune  with  his  own  nature.  '  My  soul 
thirsts  for  God,  for  the  living  God.'  One  would 
almost  imagine  that  he  had  in  his  mind  certain 
prevalent  conceptions  of  God  which  made  religion 
*  a  dry,  parched  land.'  "  ^ 

(2)  Evidently  to  rouse  and  quicken  this  sense  of 
life,  to  inspire  the  worshiper  with  its  enthusiasm,  is 
the  special  province  of  church  music.  It  is  after  in- 
voking the  aid  of  voice  and  instrument  that  the 
psalmist  concludes,  "Let  everything  that  hath 
breath  praise  the  Lord.     Praise  ye  the  Lord."  ^ 

a.  There  may  be  certain  parts  of  the  service 
which  are  not  for  the  whole  congregation,  and  there 
seems  to  be  no  more  reason  in  the  man  who  cannot 
play  or  sing  trying  to  do  these  than  in  the  man  who 
cannot  preach  afflicting  his  brethren  with  an  ex- 
hortation. The  chant,  the  anthem,  the  organ  solo, 
rendered  for  me  by  others,  may  express  my  sense 
of  praise  as  I  myself  cannot. 

b.  But  because  the  musical  part  of  the  service 
has  in  it  this  element  of  life  to  a  rare  degree,  it  is 
desirable  that  it  should  be  largely  congregational. 
To  very  few  people  is  the  ability  denied  to  join 
heartily  in  a  hymn  or  chant. 

1  Dr.  George  Matheson,  "  Psalmist  and  Scientist,"  p.  39.        *  Ps.  150. 


PUBLIC  WORSHIP   DEFINED  AND   DESCRIBED    1 5 

c.  It  should  be  added  that  the  inspiring  character 
of  our  worship  will  very  largely  determine  which 
hymns  shall  be  most  frequently  sung.  "  Praise  ye 
the  Lord.  Sing  unto  the  Lord  a  new  song,  and  his 
praise  in  the  congregation  of  saints."  ^  The  hymns 
on  which  the  heart  of  the  church  has  been  set  in  all 
ages,  and  especially  in  times  of  religious  revival  and 
of  spiritual  quickening,  have  been  hymns  of  praise. 

3.  Further,  public  worship  should  be  intelligent. 
This  follows  from  the  nature  of  the  God  whom  we 
adore.  It  is  the  Father  whom  the  true  worshiper 
worships  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  John  Stuart  Mill 
gave  utterance  to  a  supremely  Christian  sentiment 
when  he  said  :  "  if  instead  of  the  glad  tidings  that 
there  exists  a  Being  in  whom  all  the  excellencies 
which  the  highest  human  mind  can  conceive  exist 
in  a  degree  inconceivable  to  us,  I  am  informed  that 
the  world  is  ruled  by  a  Being  whose  attributes  are 
infinite,  but  what  they  are  we  cannot  learn.  .  . 
convince  me  of  it,  and  I  will  bear  my  fate  as  I 
may."  *  It  was  the  joy  of  each  apostle  and  early 
preacher  that  he  could  confront  heathen  darkness 
and  philosophical  surmise  with  the  assurance  : 
"Whom  therefore  ye  ignorantly  worship,  him  de- 
clare I  unto  you."  ' 

Moreover,  that  our  worship  must  be  intelligent  is 
evident  if  we  remember  the  purpose  which  it  is  in- 
tended to  serve. 


1  Ps.  149. 

'  J.  S.  Mill,  "  Examination  of  Hamilton's  Philosophy,"  pp.  loi,  102. 

5  Acts  17  :  23. 


l6  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

When  he  conducts  the  public  religious  service,  the 
minister  aims  to  do  three  things  :  First,  he  speaks 
for  himself  and  his  congregation  to  God  ;  this  he 
does  by  his  words  of  prayer  and  by  the  voice  of 
praise  in  which  he  invites  the  congregation  to  join. 
Secondly,  he  speaks  as  God's  voice  to  man  ;  by  the 
reading  of  the  Scriptures.  Thirdly,  he  speaks  as  a 
man  with  a  message  from  God  to  men  ;  and  this 
finds  its  utterance  in  the  sermon.  The  main  pur- 
pose served  by  public  worship,  therefore,  is  intelli- 
gent communion  with  the  Father  of  our  spirits.  It 
brings  him  near  to  the  worshiper,  and  the  worshiper 
near  to  him. 

4.  As  a  final  point,  we  claim  that  public  worship 
should  be  restful.  The  thing  which  we  intend  by 
this  word  is  perhaps  easier  understood  than  defined. 
It  is  what  the  devout  worshiper  gratefully  recognizes 
when  it  is  present,  and  wofully  misses  when,  as  too 
often  happens,  it  is  absent.  It  has  nothing  in  com- 
mon with  somnolence  or  inaction.  It  is  easily  dis- 
turbed and  dissipated.  It  is  capable  of  distinct  cul- 
tivation. 

(i)  We  mention  only  a  minor  matter,  but  yet 
it  is  one  which  cannot  be  passed  by  without  a 
note  of  warning,  when  we  say  that  in  public  wor- 
ship the  minister  should  avoid  everything  which 
may  jar  upon  that  sense  of  propriety  which  a  re- 
fined and  cultured  worshiper  possesses.  Not  by 
dress  or  behavior  or  language  should  he  offend  the 
reasonable  good  taste  of  any  of  his  congregation. 

(2)  He  should  strive  that  the  whole  act  of  wor- 


PUBLIC  WORSHIP  DEFINED  AND   DESCRIBED    17 

ship  should  be  simple  and  fervid  and  full  of  spirit- 
ual unction. 

(3)  He  will  do  well  to  preserve  some  meas- 
ure of  harmony  between  the  various  parts  of  the 
service.  Of  a  minister  who  gave  much  care  to  this 
matter,  it  was  said  :  "  Whatever  the  subject  of  his 
sermon  may  be,  his  prayers,  the  parts  of  Scripture 
read,  the  hymns  sung,  are  all  dominated  by  the 
central  idea  of  that  subject.  The  whole  service 
illustrates,  as  it  were,  the  truth  or  truths  he  wishes 
to  impress  upon  his  hearers.  There  is  no  haphazard 
or  digression  ;  all  is  proportionate  and  relative."  * 
Of  Robertson  of  Irvine,  the  poet-preacher  of  Scot- 
land, his  biographer  writes  :  "  The  correlatives,  as 
he  called  them, — praise,  prayer,  and  preaching, — 
were  built  up  by  him  on  the  principle  of  a  progres- 
sive unity."  And  of  another  minister  of  the  same 
church,  a  casual  worshiper  says  :  "  As  we  listened 
to  him  the  other  day  we  could  not  but  remark  the 
oneness  of  the  preacher,  the  service,  and  the  build- 
ing. All  three  were  instinct  with  homogeneous 
reverence  and  naturalness."  Contrast  with  this 
conception  of  what  worship  should  be,  the  fol- 
lowing report  of  a  service  in  another  place  :  "We 
had  solos,  congregational  hymns,  organ  voluntaries, 
the  brass  band  of  Salvation  Army  household  troops, 
the  singing  of  a  body  of  hallelujah  lads  and  lassies, 
while  occasional  volleys  of  loud  applause  by  the 
audience  interlarded  the  services  throughout."  it 
is   not  difficult  to  decide  which  of  these   services 

'  Dr.  William  Pulsford,  Glasgow. 
B 


l8  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

would  be  the  more  reverent,  inspiring,  intelligent, 
and  restful. 

Exceptional  circumstances  will  no  doubt  lead  us 
to  vary  the  service,  and  even  at  special  times  to 
entirely  alter  its  character ;  but  for  the  ordinary 
worship  in  our  churches  we  may  surely  claim  that 
it  be  marked  by  these  four  features.  The  test  of  a 
service  is  often  found  in  the  impression  which  it 
leaves  on  the  mind  of  a  devout  person.  Coming 
away  he  should  be  solemnized,  quickened,  enlight- 
ened, and  refreshed.  His  heart  should  bear  witness 
to  the  fine  discernment  of  Wordsworth's  lines  : 

I  bent  before  thy  gracious  throne, 
And  asked  for  peace  on  suppliant  knee  ; 

And  peace  was  given — nor  peace  alone, 
But  faith  sublimed  to  ecstasy. 


II 

THE  CONGREGATION 


SUMMARY 


The  Congregation  is  a  Unit : 

1.  Every  congregation  is  apt  to  liave  a  distinct  character  of 

its  own. 

2.  A  congregation  can  he  trained. 

3.  The  minister  is  largely  responsible  for  the  right  training 

of  his  congregation. 

I.  THE  CONGREGATION   MUST  BE  TRAINED  IN  BEHAV- 

IOR. 

1.  Habits  to  be  corrected  :  Whispering  and  talking  ;  laugh- 

ing ;  staring  about ;  coughing  loudly  ;  unpunctuality  ; 
sleeping  ;  haste  to  leave. 

2.  Correct  these  habits  by  raising  the  general  tone  of  the 

congregation. 

3.  In    some   instances  more   stringent  treatment   may  be 

called  for. 

II.  THE    CONGREGATION    MUST   BE   TRAINED    IN    REV- 

ERENCE. 

1.  Respect  for  the  minister,     (i)  Mainly  because  of  what 

he  is  in  himself ;  (2)   In  part,  because  he  is  a  minister. 

2.  Respect  for  the  day. 

3.  Respect  for  the  meeting-house. 

4.  Respect  for  the  service. 

How  to  promote  this  :  (i)  By  previous  religious  prepa- 
ration ;  (2)  By  encouraging  devout  habits  through  the 
service  ;  a.  Silent  prayer ;  b.  Deep  reverence  ;  c.  A 
reverent  posture  ;  d.  Response  of  "  Amen." 

III.  THE    CONGREGATION    MUST   BE  TRAINED  TO  HOS- 
PITALITY. 

Directions  for  this  training, 

N.  B.  Much  can  be  done  by  the  congregation  to  bring  others 
to  the  service. 

Conclusion,  a  responsive  congregation  helps  the  min- 
ister. 


II 

THE  CONGREGATION 

There  will  be  many  times  in  his  ministry  when 
the  preacher  for  purposes  of  instruction  or  appeal 
resolves  his  congregation  into  its  elements,  and, 
so  far  as  it  is  possible  to  do  so,  considers  each 
hearer  separately.  On  the  other  hand,  when  he 
leads  the  worship  of  his  people  the  minister  will 
need  to  remember  that  the  congregation  is  a  unit. 

1.  There  is  likely  to  be  a  character  which  belongs 
to  it,  and  which  distinguishes  it  from  other  congre- 
gations. No  two  are  precisely  alike.  We  recognize 
this  as  true  when  we  think  of  various  denomina- 
tions. The  Episcopalian  congregation  is  not  easily 
mistaken  for  the  Methodist,  or  the  Baptist  for  the 
Presbyterian.  But  it  is  also  true  of  congregations 
of  the  same  denomination,  and  gathering  in  the 
same  community.  To  each  belongs  its  own  indi- 
viduality. One  is  devout,  and  another  indifferent ; 
one  hypercritical,  and  another  active  and  earnest. 

2.  This  leads  to  the  further  remark  that  a  congre- 
gation, in  common  with  most  other  bodies,  can  be 
trained.  It  is  as  susceptible  to  the  influence  of  the 
minister  as  is  the  young  horse  to  the  touch  of  its 
master.  There  is  a  congregational  spirit,  a  congre- 
gational heart,  a  congregational  conscience. 

21 


22  PUBLIC   WORSHIP 

3.  For  the  development  of  these  ui  a  healthful 
way,  the  minister  is  very  largely  responsible.  Let 
him  be  especially  careful,  therefore,  as  to  his  own 
behavior,  hi  the  narrower  as  well  as  in  the  broader 
interpretation  of  it,  there  is  fitness  in  Paul's  desire 
for  Timothy:  "  That  thou  mayest  know  how  thou 
oughtest  to  behave  thyself  in  the  house  of  God."* 
He  will  do  well  to  study  his  congregation  in  its  com- 
ponent parts  and  as  a  whole,  and  then  set  to  work, 
with  tact  and  judgment,  to  educate  the  people  to 
habits  of  devout  conduct  during  public  worship, 
in  his  little  parish  of  Bemerton,  holy  George  Her- 
bert did  this,  and  his  biographer  writes:  "if  he 
were  at  any  time  too  zealous  in  his  sermons,  it  was 
in  reproving  the  indecencies  of  the  people's  behav- 
ior in  the  time  of  divine  service  ;  and  of  those  min- 
isters that  huddled  up  the  church  prayers  without 
a  visible  reverence  and  affection  ;  namely,  such  as 
seemed  to  say  the  Lord's  Prayer  or  collect  in  a 
breath  ;  but  for  himself,  his  custom  was  to  stop 
betwixt  every  collect  and  give  the  people  time  to 
consider  what  they  had  prayed,  and  to  force  their 
desires  affectionately  to  God  before  he  engaged 
them  into  new  petitions."^ 

Surrounded  by  a  congregation  not  so  large  or 
even  so  cultured  as  that  which  George  Herbert 
thus  molded  to  a  finer  behavior,  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  began  his  ministry.  With  eighteen  cents 
in  his  pocket  and  a  prospective  salary  of  three 
hundred  dollars  a  year,  he  faced   his   Lawrence- 

ij  Tim.  3  :  15.  ''Isaac  Walton,  "Life  of  George  Herbert." 


THE  CONGREGATION  23 

burg  audience  in  the  little  church  which  on  the 
Saturday  afternoon  before  his  own  hands  had 
prepared  for  decent  occupancy  ;  and  his  wife  re- 
calls the  Sunday  morning  service  when  he  set 
himself  to  the  harder  task  of  bringing  order  out 
of  chaos  in  his  congregation  :  "  He  read  the  first 
hymn  and  read  it  well — as  they  had  never  heard 
their  own  ministers  (often  illiterate,  uneducated 
men)  read  hymns.  I  watched  the  expressions 
change  on  their  faces.  Then  the  first  prayer  !  It 
was  a  revelation  to  them,  and  when  he  began  the 
sermon  the  critical  expression  had  vanished,  and 
they  evidently  settled  themselves  to  hear  in  ear- 
nest."^ By  and  by,  he  became  so  completely  the 
master  of  the  congregation  that  he  would  let  no 
interruption  during  the  service  pass  unreproved, 
"and  when  late-comers  appeared,  he  would  stop 
speaking  till  they  were  seated."  it  is  with  some 
of  the  things  to  which  a  congregation  can  be  trained 
that  we  have  now  to  deal.  Before  considering  them 
it  needs  to  be  said  that  the  full  force  of  a  pastor's 
power  in  this  matter  can  only  be  felt  by  the  people 
to  whom  he  regularly  ministers.  In  the  case  of  an 
occasional  service  to  a  congregation  which  is  strange 
to  him,  he  can  do  but  little.  Under  such  circum- 
stances it  is  not  wise  to  change  the  existing  order 
of  the  service,  or  to  draw  attention  to  his  own  opin- 
ions and  methods  ;  and  he  will  also  need  to  remem- 
ber that  the  support  which  comes  to  him  from 
knowing  his  congregation  and  being  known  by  those 

iScoville,  "  Life  of  H.  W.  Beecher, "  p.  173. 


24  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

who  worship  with  him,  is  lacking  now.  There  is 
less  to  which  he  can  appeal  in  the  confidence  of  a 
ready  response.  His  fingers  are  on  an  instrument 
whose  chords  are  unaccustomed  to  his  touch. 

1.  Having  in  mind  now  the  people  to  whom  he 
ministers  statedly,  we  remark  that  the  congregation 
must  be  trained  in  behavior.  By  this  we  mean 
outward  decorum. 

I.  There  are  habits  which  need  to  be  corrected. 
"  As  you  preach  the  word,  my  dear  brother," 
writes  Mr.  Robert  Burdette,  "  cast  your  eyes  around 
upon  the  congregation,  and  you  will  observe  these 
people,  namely  :  The  sleeper,  the  old-timer  from 
Sleepy  Hollow  ;  the  lounger,  who  falls  into  the  pew 
and  slides  easily  into  the  most  comfortable  corner  ; 
the  fidget,  who  folds  his  arms  across  his  breast, 
then  crosses  them  behind  his  back,  then  thrusts  his 
hands  into  his  pockets,  drops  a  Bible  on  the  floor, 
and  puts  his  feet  into  his  hat  ;  the  watcher,  whose 
neck  is  fitted  on  a  globe-socket  and  turns  clear 
round,  and  who  sees  so  much  that  he  has  no  time 
to  listen  ;  the  time-keeper,  who  as  you  pronounce 
your  text,  takes  out  his  watch,  looks  at  it  carefully, 
and  closes  it  with  a  snap  that  says  "  Go  "  clear  to 
the  pulpit ;  the  squeaker,  who  comes  late,  sits  well 
up  in  front,  and  wears  boots  that  are  vocal  mon- 
sters ;  and  the  '  Talking  Traveler,'  "  of  whom  Mr. 
Burdette  remarks,  "  This  brother  is  usually  a  sister. 
She  comes  to  church  Sunday  morning  careful  and 
troubled  about  all  the  unfinished  missionary  and 
sewing-circle  business  of  the  week,   and  for  pur- 


THE  CONGREGATION  2$ 

poses  of  consultation  tlits  from  one  sister  to  another 
and  buzz,  buzz,  buzz,  the  talk  goes  on  in  the  itiner- 
ant caucus." 

Underneath  the  humor  of  this  classification  the 
minister  recognizes  a  vein  of  kindly  reproof.  The 
whisperers  are  often  very  good  people,  and  the 
business  which  concerns  them  and  disturbs  the 
devout  worshiper  has  frequently  to  do  with  the 
work  of  the  church.  The  habit  of  laughing  and 
jesting  during  the  service  may  have  grown  chronic 
for  lack  of  early  correction  ;  and  not  every  minis- 
ter will  venture  to  adopt  the  heroic  treatment  em- 
ployed by  a  long-suffering  preacher  who  being 
annoyed  in  this  way,  paused  in  his  discourse, 
looked  at  the  disturbers,  and  said  :  "  1  am  always 
afraid  to  reprove  those  who  misbehave,  for  this 
reason  :  Some  years  since,  as  I  was  preaching,  a 
young  man  who  sat  before  me  was  constantly 
laughing,  talking,  and  making  uncouth  grimaces. 
I  paused  and  administered  a  severe  rebuke.  After 
the  close  of  the  service  a  gentleman  said  to  me  : 
'  Sir,  you  made  a  great  mistake  ;  that  young  man 
was  an  idiot.'  Since  then  I  have  always  been 
afraid  to  reprove  those  who  misbehave  themselves 
in  church,  lest  I  should  repeat  that  mistake  and  re- 
prove another  idiot."  During  the  rest  of  that  serv- 
ice there  was  good  order.  To  survey  the  congre- 
gation with  a  view  to  see  who  is,  and  especially 
who  is  not  present,  is  sometimes  an  office  for  which 
some  particular  deacon  believes  himself  especially 
qualified.     The  man  who  has  not  elsewhere  trained 


26  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

himself  to  repress,  so  far  as  possible,  the  cough  and 
its  accompanying  demonstrations,  will  not  be  likely 
to  begin  that  neglected  branch  of  his  education  in 
manners  in  the  church.  Unpunctuality  would  seem 
to  be  an  inherited  frailty  in  congregations,  although 
in  no  other  part  of  the  world  (if  we  may  credit  the 
observations  of  those  who  have  made  a  study  of 
the  subject),  is  it  so  completely  reduced  to  a  system 
as  in  America.  In  the  records  of  a  Baptist  church 
in  Yorkshire,  England,  which  date  from  nearly  a 
century  ago,  we  may  read  :  "  Brother  E.  Crossley 
is  desired  to  speak  as  he  may  have  opportunity  to 
such  persons  as  coming  too  late  or  walking  too  fast 
upstairs  disturb  the  congregation  "  ;  and  two  hun- 
dred years  earlier  George  Herbert  sang  : 

Sunday  observe  ;  think  when  the  bells  do  chime 
'Tis  angels'  music  ;  therefore  come  not  late. 

Far  gone  although  he  be,  the  late-comer  may  yet 
have  a  conscience  which  will  be  brought  to  time 
by  the  answer  that  a  lady  gave  to  the  inquiry  why 
she  always  came  early  to  church  :  "  Because  it  is 
part  of  my  religion  never  to  disturb  th'e  religion  of 
others." 

The  habit  of  sleeping  in  church  can  plead  antiq- 
uity in  its  support,  as  can  so  many  other  practices 
which  are  more  time-honored  than  honored  in  any 
better  way.  That  Samuel  Pepys  attended  church 
so  regularly  and  profited  by  the  sermon  so  little, 
is  in  part  accounted  for  if  we  note  with  what  fre- 
quency he  owns  in  his  Diary  to  having  preferred 


THE  CONGREGATION  2^ 

a  doze  to  a  discourse  ;  and  the  preacher,  if  he  no- 
tices a  general  disposition  to  somnolency  on  the 
part  of  his  congregation  will  do  well  to  lay  to  heart 
what  a  witty  Frenchman  said  to  an  author  who 
blamed  him  for  condemning  his  composition  when 
as  a  fact  the  critic  had  been  sleeping  all  the  time 
that  it  was  being  read,  "My  friend,  sleep  is  an 
opinion." 

Against  the  unseemly  practice  of  scrambling  for 
the  hat,  or  even  into  the  overcoat,  while  the  final 
hymn  is  being  sung  or  the  benediction  pronounced, 
Dr.  John  Hall  remonstrated  :  "  There  is  no  need 
that  you  should  have  your  hat  in  your  hand,  no 
need  that  you  should  have  the  greatcoat  upon 
the  shoulder,  nor  yet  that,  the  moment  the  last 
syllable  is  pronounced,  doors  should  be  thrown 
open,  as  though  you  were  eager  and  impatient 
until  the  thing  had  come  to  a  close.  It  would  be 
well — it  would  be  better,  more  in  harmony  with 
outward  expressions  of  reverence — if  there  were 
a  moment's  silence,  a  silent  pause,  indicating  that, 
when  the  service  is  closed,  you  have  not  been 
eager  for  its  close,  and  then  it  is  yours  to  go  away 
in  the  hopeful  confidence  that  God  had  been  rever- 
ently waiting  upon  you,  and  whose  benediction  had 
been  pronounced  over  you  in  his  name  and  by  his 
authority,  would  go  with  you  and  help  you  to  make 
the  rest  of  your  life,  not  secular  as  distinguished 
from  religious,  but  spiritual  and  godly  through  and 
through."  ^ 

I  "Homiletic  Review,"  March,  1885. 


28  PUBLIC   WORSHIP 

This  is  a  wiser  method  of  correcting  a  most  un- 
seemly habit  than  that  of  the  minister  who  tried  to 
break  it  up  by  remarking  :  "  Those  of  the  congrega- 
tion who  do  not  get  their  things  on  during  the 
prayer  can  do  so  while  I  pronounce  the  benedic- 
tion." The  loss  of  temper  which  betrays  itself  in 
a  sarcasm  is  likely  to  result  in  a  corresponding  loss 
of  influence ;  and  nowhere  is  influence  needed 
more  than  when  these  careless  and  irreverent  cus- 
toms, which  may  have  gone  for  many  years  un- 
checked, come  to  be  reproved. 

2.  hideed,  no  sounder  method  of  reformation  can 
be  suggested  than  to  raise  the  general  tone  of  the 
congregation,  and  this  will  demand  patience  and 
tact.  Sydney  Smith  said  of  the  British  House  of 
Commons,  that  as  a  whole,  it  had  more  good  taste 
than  any  one  man  in  it.  This  is  true  also  of  a  con- 
gregation. There  is  a  body  of  behavior  in  it  re- 
sembling the  body  of  public  opinion  in  civil  matters. 
This  can  be  elevated  by  strenuous  and  intelligent 
education,  it  is  wise  to  notice  with  words  of  com- 
mendation every  sign  of  reformation.  Accustom 
the  people  to  take  such  a  healthful  pride  in  their 
reputation  for  devout  behavior  as  will  lead  them  in- 
stinctively to  resent  any  lowering  of  the  standard. 
Do  not  count  this  matter  unworthy  of  a  prayer 
meeting  talk  when  the  time  is  ripe  for  it. 

3.  Without  doubt  there  may  be  instances  of  un- 
seemly behavior  which  will  call  for  more  stringent 
treatment.  But  forbear,  so  long  as  it  is  possible  to 
do  so,  from  speaking  to  an  offender  in  public.     Go 


THE   CONGREGATION  2g 

to  him  alone,  and  remonstrate.  It  is  quite  possible 
that  his  education  in  the  minor  moralities  of  Chris- 
tianity has  been  neglected.  Neither  the  home  nor 
the  daily  work  has  taught  him  reverence,  and  per- 
haps even  courtesy  has  little  or  no  meaning  to  him. 
Sometimes  it  will  remedy  the  evil  if  you  pause  in  -- 
the  service  until  the  interrupter  becomes  conscious 
of  the  annoyance  he  is  causing.  There  may,  how- 
ever, be  extreme  cases  in  which  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  for  you  *'to  speak  out  in  meeting" 
against  ill  behavior.  If  there  is,  then,  without 
losing  your  temper,  do  not  spare  the  offender.  You 
may  even  go  further,  and  secure  the  presence  of  a 
policeman  \\hen  some  long-continued  disturbance 
imperils  profitable  worship,  or  which  is  better,  you 
can  have  yourself,  or  some  official  in  the  church, 
sworn  in  as  a  special  constable  with  power  to  en- 
force order.  The  early  New  England  church  had  a 
recognized  authority  in  the  tithing  man,  equipped 
with  a  long  staff,  heavily  knobbed  at  one  end,  and 
furnished  with  a  hare's  foot  for  gentler  discipline  at 
the  other  ;  the  English  beadle  divided  such  duties 
with  the  warden,  who  was  also  armed  with  a  rod 
and  encouraged  to  use  it  when  necessary  ;  and 
Addison  tells  us  how  the  stately  Sir  Roger  de  Cov- 
erley  was  in  the  habit  of  occasionally  rising  in  his 
pew  during  the  service  to  see  that  his  tenants  were 
ordering  themselves  lowlily  and  reverently.  We 
have  not  yet  reached  the  time  when  we  can  entirely 
dispense  with  the  power  behind  the  pulpit  any  more 
than  we  can  with  the  power  behind  the  throne. 


30  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

II.  Secondly,  the  congregation  must  be  trained  in 
reverence.  Reverence  lies  at  the  roots  of  behavior, 
and  powerfully  affects  it,  influencing  our  treatment 
of  the  day  in  which  we  gather  for  worship,  and  of 
all  that  the  act  itself  involves. 

I.  It  should  be  evident,  for  one  thing,  in  respect 
for  the  minister. 

(i)  Mainly,  let  us  hope,  this  respect  will  be  ac- 
corded to  him  because  of  what  he  is  in  himself. 
His  character,  apart  from  his  office,  must  command 
the  confidence  of  his  people,  and  he,  in  his  turn, 
must  learn  to  respect  them.  Without  this  there 
can  be  no  satisfactory  fellowship  and  no  worship 
worthy  of  the  name.  To  minister  and  congrega- 
tion alike  comes  the  word  :  "  And  ye  my  flock, 
the  flock  of  my  pasture,  are  men,  and  I  am  your 
God,  saith  the  Lord."  '  Well  does  Phillips  Brooks 
say :  "  The  whole  of  the  relation  between  the 
preacher  and  the  congregation  is  plain.  They  be- 
long together.  But  neither  can  absorb  or  override 
the  other.  They  must  be  filled  with  mutual  re- 
spect." ' 

(2)  Yet  in  part  this  respect  is  also  due  to  the 
minister  as  the  minister.  He  is  the  man  chosen 
by  the  church  to  conduct  the  worship.  In  honor- 
ing him  the  people  also  honor  themselves.  "  There 
is  an  authority  belonging  to  the  man  who  holds  the 
ministerial  office,  an  authority  hard  to  define,  but 
the  recognition  of  which  is  essential  to  the  peace  of 
the  church  and  to  its  vigorous  action."  '     While, 

1  Ezek.  54  :  31-        ^  "  Yale  Lectures,"  Lecture  VL         3  pr.  W.  R.  Dale. 


THE  CONGREGATION  31 

therefore,  the  minister  will  avoid  all  priestly  as- 
sumption, he  will  never  suffer  himself  to  forget  that 
he  is  in  the  pulpit  as  a  recognized  ambassador  of 
Christ. 

2.  Reverence  should  further  show  itself  in  respect 
for  the  day.  The  usage  of  centuries  has  set  Sunday 
apart  for  sacred  rest,  for  communion  with  God,  and 
for  his  public  worship.  Independent  of  all  contro- 
versy as  to  authority,  it  is  enough  for  our  purpose 
that  this  general  usage  has  settled  for  us  the  ques- 
tion of  the  true  purport  of  Sunday.  It  cannot  be 
treated  as  other  days  are.  Certainly  the  hours  set 
apart  for  worship  are  to  be  spent  devoutly.  It  is  of 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  who  pretended  to  little  re- 
spect for  traditional  authority  in  religion,  that  one 
of  his  friends  writes  :  "  There  was  in  the  corner  of 
his  heart  a  place  called  reverence,  which  needed  to 
be  watered  once  a  week." 

3.  We  mention  as  another  way  in  which  rever- 
ence should  be  apparent,  a  respect  for  the  meeting- 
house. He  who  would  not  wear  his  hat  in  the 
house  of  a  friend,  will  certainly  not  wish  to  do  so 
in  the  house  of  the  Lord.  There  is  nothing  super- 
stitious in  the  feeling  which  cherishes  with  respect- 
ful affection  the  place  which  is  associated  with  so 
much  that  is  sacred  in  our  lives.  There  we  were 
brought  to  worship  in  our  childhood,  there  the  mes- 
sage which  led  to  our  conversion  reached  us,  there 
we  were  baptized,  and  there  first  we  sat  at  the 
Lord's  table  with  men  and  women  whose  memory 
is  unspeakably  dear  and  fragrant  to  us.     The  meet- 


32  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

ing-house  should,  so  far  as  is  possible,  be  employed 
only  for  religious  purposes.  Not  willingly  should 
we  lower  its  character  by  any  purely  secular  usage. 
It  has  not  been  consecrated  by  ecclesiastical  cere- 
monies, but  yet  it  is  holy  ground  by  the  fact  that 
to  many  souls  it  is  none  other  than  the  house  of 
God  and  the  gate  of  heaven, 

4.  We  may  certainly  claim  that  the  spirit  of  rev- 
erence will  be  seen  in  our  respect  for  the  service. 

(i)  To  strengthen  this  it  is  well  to  encourage 
previous  religious  preparation  on  the  part  of  the 
people.  At  the  mid-week  prayer  meeting  you  may 
sometimes  urge  that  special  prayer  be  offered  on 
behalf  of  the  services  of  the  next  Sunday.  Oc- 
casionally call  the  people  together  during  the  week 
to  plead  for  the  same  object.  Some  churches  have 
a  Saturday  night  prayer  meeting  when  they  "pray 
on  to  the  Sunday  "  ;  more  common  is  the  early 
Sunday  morning  prayer  meeting  ;  and,  of  late  years, 
the  five  minutes  which  the  minister  spends  in 
prayer  with  his  deacons  immediately  before  going 
into  the  public  service,  morning  and  evening. 

(2)  If  this  earnest  spirit  of  expectancy  has  been 
cherished  beforehand  it  will  not  be  a  hard  matter  to 
encourage  devout  habits  during  the  service. 

a.  As  the  worshiper  takes  his  seat,  let  there  be 
a  few  moments  of  silent  prayer.  Call  the  atten- 
tion of  the  church  to  this  privilege,  of  which  too 
little  has  been  made. 

h.  By  word,  act,  and  spirit,  inculcate  deep  rev- 
erence for  God  and  his  worship.     With  what  holy 


THE  CONGREGATION  33 

awe  the  patriarchs  approached  his  throne.  How 
one  feels  the  hush  of  godly  fear  as  the  high  priest 
lifts  the  curtain  and  passes  into  the  Holy  of  Holies. 
It  was  before  the  vision  of  the  God  whom  we  adore 
that  Isaiah  cried  : '  "  Woe  is  me  !  .  .  for  mine  eyes 
have  seen  the  King,  the  Lord  of  hosts."  "  Surely," 
says  Lewis  Carroll,  "there  is  a  deep  meaning  in 
our  prayer,  '  Give  us  an  heart  to  love  and  dread 
thee.'  We  do  not  mean  terror,  but  a  dread  that 
will  harmonize  with  love  ;  '  respect '  we  should  call 
it  as  toward  a  human  being,  '  reverence  '  as  toward 
God  arid  all  religious  things." 

c.  Our  devotions  would  be  helped  were  we  to 
assume  as  far  as  we  can  do  so,  a  reverent  posture 
in  prayer.  "Here,"  says  the  Episcopal  Prayer- 
book,  "  the  congregation  shall  kneel  on  their 
knees,"  but  even  where  provision  has  been  made 
for  doing  this,  it  is  too  often  true,  as  a  French  satir- 
ist has  lately  remarked,  that  the  "  faithful  kneel  on 
something  else  ;  they  sit  down  and  then  with  their 
elbows  on  their  knees,  the  upper  part  of  the  body 
thrown  forward  and  their  faces  buried  in  their  hands, 
they  look  from  a  certain  distance  as  if  they  were 
all  on  their  knees,  whereas  they  are  all  comfortably 
seated."  At  least  it  is  possible  to  urge  on  the  peo- 
ple that  during  prayer  the  head  be  bowed,  and  face 
be  shaded  by  the  hand,  and  the  eyes  closed. 

d.  There  seems  no  reason,  also,  why  the  congre- 
gation should  not  be  trained  to  say  "  Amen  "  after 
the  prayer  ;  and  the  quiet  moment  at  the  close  of 

1  Isa.  6  :  5. 

c 


34  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

the  service,  when  the  whole  congregation  remains 
in  silent  prayer,  will  be  secured  if  the  benediction 
be  pronounced  with  the  people  seated,  and  if  the 
minister  makes  a  brief  pause  between  the  last 
words  of  the  benediction  and  the  final  "amen." 

The  minister  will  himself  be  the  gainer,  as  well 
as  the  people  of  his  charge,  if  he  makes  a  serious 
business  of  training  his  congregation  in  reverence. 
A  New  England  pastor,  with  strong  Puritan  sympa- 
thies, finds  himself  deeply  impressed  while  attend- 
ing the  Protestant  churches  in  Europe  with  the 
devout  appearance  of  the  congregation.  He  says: 
"  I  used  often  to  find  myself  in  a  church  where  a 
sacred  stillness  pervaded  the  assembly  as  the  min- 
ister led  our  devotions.  Nearly  all  bowed  their 
heads  in  prayer,  as  they  took  their  places  in  the 
pews.  They  listened  attentively,  and  they  joined 
in  singing  and  chanting  as  though  they  desired  to 
have  a  part  in  the  worship.  They  were  in  no  haste 
to  leave  their  seats  after  the  benediction.  It  is 
easier  to  preach  in  England  than  at  home,  because 
English  congregations  are  so  attentive  and  so  re- 
sponsive." ^ 

We  have  been  dealing  in  this  chapter  with  what 
may  be  called  the  externals  of  worship,  with  mat- 
ters which  belong  rather  to  its  seemly  and  success- 
ful conduct  than  to  its  deeper  purpose.  The  behav- 
ior of  a  congregation  and  the  respect  which  it  shows 
for  the  service  are  indeed  of  great  importance,  but 

^"The  Church  of  Yesterday,  To-day,  and  Forever,"   E.   H.  Byington 
Smith,  D.  D. 


THE  CONGREGATION  35 

mainly  because  they  are  the  surface  manifestation, 
outward  and  visible,  of  hearts  and  minds  and  truth. 

III.  We  shall  make  our  subject  complete  if  we 
add  that  the  congregation  should  be  trained  to  hos- 
pitality. 

A  church,  as  much  as  other  places,  has  a  climate. 
The  atmosphere  is  sometimes  warm  and  genial,  at 
others  it  is  cold  and  repelling.  The  architecture  of 
the  building  is  in  part  responsible  for  this.  The 
Gothic  cathedral,  ingeniously  planned  to  circulate 
draughts  and  create  echoes,  is  not  so  conducive  to 
profitable  worship  as  the  building  planned  on  the 
lines  of  the  old  Jewish  synagogue,  the  early 
basilica,  or  the  familiar  New  England  meeting- 
house. A  good  many  churches  have  yet  to  learn 
the  secret  of  lighting  up  more  brightly  in  front,  so 
as  to  attract  the  passers-by.  The  name  of  the 
church  and  of  the  minister  should  be  plainly  ex- 
posed on  a  board  in  a  prominent  place  on  the 
church,  where  all  will  be  likely  to  see  it.  The 
habit  of  substituting  for  this  useful  information,  the 
name  and  address  of  the  sexton  and  undertaker  is 
to  be  avoided  ;  it  only  suggests  that  the  church, 
like  the  potter's  field,  is  chiefly  used  as  a  place  to 
bury  strangers  in. 

The  minister  should  set  himself  to  the  work  of 
stimulating  the  hospitality  of  the  congregation. 
The  following  hints  may  be  of  use  to  him  : 

I.  Aim  to  give  to  the  whole  church  service  a 
social,  homelike  feeling.  "  Let  three  doors  be  open 
here,"  was  the  counsel  of  that  model  pastor.  Dr. 


36  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

C.  L.  Goodell,  "the  door  of  the  church,  the  door 
of  the  pew,  the  door  of  the  heart."  A  partner  of 
Richard  Cobden's  used  to  say  that  he  could  not 
work  properly  in  a  temperature  of  less  than  sixty- 
five  degrees,  and  in  like  manner  the  moral  temper- 
ature should  be  kept  warm  in  order  to  profitable 
worship. 

2.  Make  strangers  welcome.  It  will  be  well  if 
the  church  is  furnished  with  an  ample  vestibule 
where  you  can  speak  to  them  at  the  close  of  the 
service,  if  you  adopt  that  method  of  greeting  them, 
and  where,  in  any  case,  a  welcoming  committee 
should  have  one  or  more  of  its  members  always 
present.  "  An  usher  at  each  door  is  ready  for  you," 
says  Mr.  Robert  Burdette  ;  "  there  is  a  perfect 
picket  line  of  sextons  and  deacons  and  ushers  along 
the  front  of  the  church  of  the  Samaritans  ;  not  to 
keep  people  out  but  to  bring  them  in  ;  it  isn't  a  fort, 
it's  a  hospital  ;  it's  a  man-trap,  baited  with  Chris- 
tian courtesy,  and  the  man  who  is  caught  there 
never  tries  to  get  away."  The  ushers  should 
be  selected  with  care  ;  let  them  be  genial,  atten- 
tive, business-like,  and  instructed  to  seat  the  early 
comers  well  to  the  front.  A  committee  on  stran- 
gers may  with  advantage  be  appointed  in  a  large 
church,  or  one  in  which  the  congregation  changes 
often.  The  duty  of  this  committee  will  be  to  re- 
ceive from  the  pastor  lists  of  persons  who  have 
attended  the  church  service  and  visit  them.  He,  in 
his  turn,  gets  these  names  by  means  of  cards 
placed  for  the  purpose  in  the  pews,  and  to  which 


THE  CONGREGATION  37 

he  occasionally  calls  the  attention  of  the  congrega- 
tion. 

3.  During  the  service,  keep  your  eye  on  the 
people  ;  from  your  position  you  may  see  much  that 
will  escape  the  notice  of  others.  Be  able  to  beckon 
to  your  side  an  usher  or  deacon,  by  means  of  a  pre- 
concerted signal,  so  that  he  may  receive  directions 
or  suggestions.  Encourage  the  officers  of  the  church 
and  the  members  of  the  congregation  to  bring  occa- 
sional worshipers  to  be  introduced  to  you  at  the 
close  of  the  service. 

Be  in  the  study  or  remain  for  a  while  in  front  of 
the  pulpit  for  this  purpose.  More  than  one  minis- 
ter has  adopted  the  excellent  plan  of  keeping  the 
lecture  room  or  the  church  parlors  open  for  an  hour 
after  the  evening  service  on  Sundays,  and  inviting 
all  who  will  to  remain  for  a  social  hour.  To  num- 
bers of  young  people  in  our  cities  who  have  no 
homes  to  which  to  return,  this  has  been  a  means 
of  permanent  good. 

4.  Let  the  congregation  be  trained  to  be  sociable, 
hitroduce  pew-holders  to  those  who  occupy  seats 
near  them.  At  one  church  in  a  large  Eastern  city, 
each  member  of  a  certain  committee  is  pledged  to 
make  any  strangers  in  the  five  pews  in  front  of 
him  feel  at  home  in  the  church.'  After  each  serv- 
ice he  speaks  to  them  and  shows  them  other  at- 
tentions calculated  to  make  them  wish  to  come 
again.  Try  to  get  the  members  of  the  church  to 
feel  their  responsibility  in  this  matter  of  congrega- 

1  "  Goodell's  Life,"  p,  375. 


38  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

tional  hospitality.  To  a  member  of  the  pulpit  com- 
mittee of  a  large  city  church  that  was  in  search  of 
a  minister  who  would  attract  and  hold  a  congrega- 
tion, Dr.  Henry  Van  Dyke  said,  with  wholesome 
plainness  of  speech  :  "  Twenty  congregations  have 
passed  through  your  church  in  the  last  twenty 
years  ;  and  they  have  passed  through  because  you 
have  not  had  a  church  that  will  hold.  You  want  a 
church  that  will  hold  the  people  when  they  get  into 
it.  The  minister  cannot  hold.  Success  depends 
not  half  so  much  upon  the  minister  as  upon  you, 
the  church."  Let  the  pew-holders  themselves 
bring  in  those  whom  they  may  see  in  the  vesti- 
bules or  aisles  in  need  of  seats.  Have  the  pews 
well  supplied  with  hymn  books  and  Bibles,  and  ac- 
custom the  people  to  pass  them  to  strangers,  even 
though  they  themselves  may  have  to  go  without. 
He  who  once  finds  his  way  into  the  church  of 
which  Mr.  Burdette  writes  is  likely  to  return  :  "  You 
get  comfortably  seated  and  somebody  pushes  a  has- 
sock toward  you  ;  a  child  in  the  next  pew  hands 
you  a  hymn  book  ;  an  old  lady  puts  a  Bible  into 
your  hand.  The  minister  looks  at  you  as  though 
he  had  seen  you  before,  and  was  glad  to  see  you 
again." 

One  of  the  first  memoranda  that  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  made  in  his  journal  when  called  to  his 
little  Western  church  ran  thus  :  "My  people  must 
be  alert  to  make  the  church  agreeable,  to  give 
seats,  and  wait  on  strangers."  Mindful  of  her 
early  experiences  in  a  city  church,   of  her  utter 


THE  CONGREGATION  3g 

loneliness  in  a  crowd  in  which  there  seemed  to  be 
no  one  to  sympathize  with  her  lot  or  to  care  for  her 
religious  needs,  a  Christian  woman  writes  "to 
urge  that  we  see  to  it  that  there  are  no  strangers 
left  in  our  church  to  feel  that  not  one  of  God's  peo- 
ple cares  a  thought  for  their  welfare  or  spiritual 
growth.  In  all  our  large  cities  there  is  a  mass  of 
moving  humanity,  men  and  women  who  have  left 
their  homes  at  the  very  verge  of  childhood,  thrown 
out  to  drift  or  struggle  along  upon  the  world's  toss- 
ing billows,  and  it  may  be  that,  entering  the  house 
of  worship,  many  of  them  may  meet  the  first  true, 
earnest  greeting  from  a  kindly  heart  that  has  been 
given  for  years.  Shall  we  let  them  go  uncheered  }  " 
As  a  young  man  Daniel  Macmillan  was  first  a 
Baptist  and  afterward  an  Independent.  Subse- 
quently he  passed  over  to  the  Church  of  England, 
and  became  probably  the  most  influential  and  pros- 
perous publisher  of  the  literature  of  that  church 
that  our  century  has  seen.  It  was  with  feeling  of 
affection  and  respect  and  reverence  that  he  bade 
farewell  to  Mr.  Binney,  the  minister  of  the  place  of 
worship  in  London  which  he  had  attended  ;  but  he 
was  careful  to  add  :  "  As  no  one  there  ever  spoke 
to  me,  as  I  know  no  one  there,  and  can  have  no 
respect  or  affection  for  the  church,  it  costs  me  no 
pain  to  leave  it."^  A  few  years  since  the  minister 
of  another  church,  in  announcing  that  he  had  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  one  who  had  been  a  member 
of  the  church  and  wished  his  name  erased,  quoted 

I  "  Memoir  of  Daniel  Macmillan,"  p.  73. 


40  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

the  words  with  which  this  request  closed :  '*  1 
esteem  your  church  for  its  high  gentlemanly  tone, 
but  I  pity  those  who  join  it  with  the  expectation  of 
receiving  any  Christian  fellowship."  No  doubt  in 
many  cases  similar  to  these  the  fault  is  by  no 
means  all  on  one  side  ;  but  with  that  we  are  not 
now  concerned.  Our  duty  is  to  inculcate  and  to 
practise  the  grace  of  congregational  hospitality.  If 
any  should  go  away  lonely  of  heart  and  unnoticed, 
let  it  be  through  no  lack  of  cordiality  on  the  part  of 
the  minister  and  his  people.  The  one  as  much  as 
the  other  is  responsible  for  the  hospitable  atmos- 
phere of  the  church.  To  a  larger  extent  than  is 
often  thought  by  us,  the  members  of  the  church 
can  work  for  the  building-up  of  the  congregation, 
in  an  old  Baptist  church-book  these  words  may  be 
found  :  "  Approved  of  the  suggestion  from  Brother 
Ackroyd,  that  all  the  members  use  their  utmost  en- 
deavor to  bring  their  neighbors  to  the  public  meet- 
ings." The  sight  of  so  many  empty  pews  greatly 
discouraged  Mr.  Spurgeon  on  his  first  Sunday  morn- 
ing at  New  Park  Street  Chapel,  London.  "  What 
can  be  done  ?  "  one  of  the  deacons  asked  of  his 
family  when  they  returned  from  the  service.  "  We 
must  get  him  a  better  congregation  to-night,  or  we 
shall  lose  him."  "So  all  that  Sabbath  afternoon 
there  ensued  a  determined  looking  up  of  friends 
and  acquaintances,  who  by  some  means  or  other 
were  coaxed  into  giving  a  promise  that  they  would 
be  at  Park  Street  in  the  evening,  to  hear  the  won- 
derful boy-preacher."     Mr.  Spurgeon  had  seen  his 


THE  CONGREGATION  4 1 

last  of  the  empty  pews  ;  and  he  never  failed  to  in- 
sist that  his  immediate  success  in  London  was  due, 
in  no  small  measure,  to  the  recruiting  work  done 
from  the  very  beginning  by  the  members  of  his 
congregation. 

In  conclusion,  let  me  remind  the  minister  that 
nothing  will  help  him  during  the  service  (with  the 
exception,  of  course,  of  the  presence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit),  so  much  as  a  responsive  congregation.  Elo- 
quence in  its  highest  forms  is  due  to  an  eloquent 
hearer  as  well  as  to  an  eloquent  speaker.  In  our 
congregational  worship  each  responsive  heart  is  of 
substantial  service  to  the  minister.  And  if  he  has 
been  happy  enough  to  win  their  affection  and  to 
command  their  respect,  he  will  not  appeal  to  them 
for  this  response  in  vain.  The  heartiness  with 
which  a  congregation  falls  in  with  the  wishes  of  the 
pastor  in  these  matters  of  behavior,  reverence,  and 
hospitality  is  only  one  proof  among  many  of  the 
love  and  loyalty  which  it  delights  to  show  to  him. 
"1  cannot  help  bearing  witness,"  said  Phillips 
Brooks,  "to  the  fairness  and  considerateness  which 
belongs  to  this  strange  composite  being,  the  con- 
gregation. His  insight  is  very  true,  and  his  con- 
science on  the  whole  is  very  right.  Whether  the 
minister  feels  the  congregation  or  not,  the  congre- 
gation feels  the  minister.  Often  the  horse  knows 
the  rider  better  than  the  rider  knows  the  horse." ^ 


1  "Yale  Lectures,"  p.  211. 


Ill 

THE  PUBLIC  SERVICE 


SUMMARY 


I.  THE  Minister's  CONDUCT  OF  THE  PUBLIC  Service. 

1.  Appearance.     As  to  dress. 

2.  Manner. 

3.  Habits:    (i)    Punctuality;   (2)   Decorum;   (3)   Devout- 

ness. 
Note.  The  extremes  of  assumption  and  subservience  to  be 
avoided,     i.  Not  extreme.    2.  The  minister  to  lead. 

II.  The  Order  of  Worship  in  the  public  Service. 

I.  The  arrangement  of  the  various  parts  of  the  service: 
(i)  Pay  attention  to  devotion,  praise,  edification,  rest. 
Beware  of  exaggerating  the  sermon  at  the  expense  of 
the  other  parts  of  the  service.  Formerly  more  common 
than  now  ;  still  done  ,  encouraged  sometimes  by  pulpit 
notices  in  the  newspapers;  (2)  Preserve  a  settled 
order  ;  (3)  Do  not  unnecessarily  multiply  the  parts  of 
the  service. 

Note.  i.  As  to  the  pastor's  register,  2.  As  to  the  collec- 
tion. 3.  The  length  of  the  service.  4.  Proportion 
to  be  observed  in  the  service. 

Note.  As  to  making  announcements  from  the  pulpit. 

Appendix.     Examples  of  orders  of  services. 

I.   The  Puritan  model.     2.   The   Puritan    model   en- 
riched.    3.  More  elaborate  forms. 


Ill 

THE   PUBLIC   SERVICE 

I.  Almost  a  hundred  years  ago,  Sydney  Smith 
said  that  his  countrymen,  generally  remarkable  for 
doing  good  things  in  a  very  bad  manner,  seemed  to 
have  reserved  the  maturity  and  plenitude  of  their 
awkwardness  for  the  pulpit.  Everywhere  else,  he 
said,  men  were  more  natural  than  they  were  there. 
To  this  charge  others  of  us  are  exposed  than  those 
against  whom  it  was  originally  brought,  in  consid- 
ering our  present  subject,  it  will  be  well,  therefore, 
to  deal  at  once  with  the  minister's  conduct  of  the 
public  service. 

I.  That  he  be  careful  as  to  his  appearance  is  a 
matter  of  some  importance.  The  simplest  rule  as 
to  dress  is  that  he  must  wear  nothing  that  can,  by 
attracting  attention  to  him,  divert  it  from  his  office. 
Let  him  wear  in  the  pulpit  what  it  is  customary  to 
wear.  The  distinctly  clerical  dress  is  less  common 
now  than  it  was  formerly.  Robert  Hall  preached 
in  a  dress  suit ;  and  before  his  time  it  is  likely  that 
the  black  Geneva  gown  was  in  use  in  the  Noncon- 
formist pulpits  of  England,  while  the  white  tie  has 
lingered  down  to  the  present  time.  When  we  learn 
that  during  his  first  regular  engagement  as  a  minis- 
ter, John  Foster  officiated  in  a  crimson  waistcoat, 

45 


46  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

and  was  attended  to  the  pulpit  by  "  Pero,  a  large 
and  very  generous  dog,  my  most  devoted  friend," 
we  are  not  surprised  that  a  little  more  than  three 
months'  trial  sufficed  to  reconcile  his  congregation 
to  dispensing  with  his  services.  The  answer 
which  Jesus  made  to  the  importunity  of  the 
Syro-Phoenician  woman  should  have  silenced  him 
while  it  emboldened  her.  It  was  not  seemly  to 
give  the  children's  meat  to  dogs.  Mrs.  Spurgeon, 
as  a  girl,  hearing  her  future  husband  for  the  first 
time,  failed  "to  understand  his  earnest  presenta- 
tion of  the  gospel  and  his  powerful  pleading  with 
sinners  ;  but  the  huge  black  satin  stock,  the  long, 
badly-trimmed  hair,  the  blue  pocket-handkerchief 
with  white  spots,"  attracted  her  attention  by  ap- 
pealing to  her  sense  of  the  ludicrous.  The  minis- 
ter will  do  well  to  arrange  his  coat  before  entering 
the  pulpit,  and  to  avoid  the  appearance  of  slovenli- 
ness or  even  of  haste  in  making  his  toilet.  An 
impression  which  is  favorable  or  the  reverse  may 
often  be  created  by  matters  as  seemingly  trifling  as 
these.  That  Doctor  Kirk,  of  Boston,  entered  the 
pulpit  with  a  grace  and  naturalness  which  at  once 
pleased  the  eye,  prepared  a  critic  to  conclude  that 
"his  personal  manners  gave  the  entire  tone  and 
effect  to  his  discourse."  '  We  may  not  go  so  far 
as  to  say  with  Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  when  lament- 
ing his  own  deficiencies,  "  God  may  forgive  sins, 
but  awkwardness  has  no  forgiveness  in  heaven  or 
in  earth  "  ;  but  still  we  may,  without  the  suspicion 

1  "Life  of  E.  N.  Kirk,  D.  D.,"  p.  318. 


THE  PUBLIC  SERVICE  47 

of  being  over-refined,  lay  stress  upon  the  carriage 
and  bearing  of  the  minister  when  he  comes  to  oc- 
cupy a  very  trying  position. 

2.  Daniel  Webster  held  it  to  be  an  evidence  of 
the  divine  origin  of  Christianity  that  it  had  so  long 
survived  being  preached  in  tub  pulpits.  To  the 
minister,  however,  the  platform  of  our  time  is  not 
less  exacting.  The  observed  of  all  observers,  he 
has  not  the  range  of  resources  provided  for  the  actor 
on  the  stage.  He  is  alone.  The  entire  service  is 
to  be  conducted  by  him.  He  cannot  divert  atten- 
tion from  himself.  The  platform  should  be  fur- 
nished with  a  desk,  upon  which  the  Bible  and  hymn 
book  can  be  laid,  and  behind  which,  during  the 
main  part  of  the  service,  the  minister  will  stand. 
His  chair  should  be  near  enough  to  reach  it  without 
taking  the  Sabbath  day's  journey  which  in  some 
churches  is  suggested  by  the  objectionable  practice, 
now  happily  falling  into  disuse,  of  cumbering  the 
platform  with  a  large  lounge  placed  against  the 
wall  and  far  removed  from  the  desk.  The  platform 
is  a  place  for  business,  not  for  ease.  To  banish  the 
pulpit  altogether  is  to  suggest  a  theatre  ;  to  furnish 
it  with  a  sofa  or  richly  upholstered  chairs  is  to  sug- 
gest a  parlor.  That  minister  is  happy  who  possesses 
the  faculty  of  seeing  at  once  and  instinctively  the 
fitness  of  things.  He  may  even  be  thankful  if  he 
has  a  quick  sense  of  the  ludicrous.  Dean  Stanley 
wondered  on  one  occasion  that  his  great  audience 
in  Westminster  Abbey  was  so  unusually  attentive  ; 
but  his  complacency  was  shattered  at  a  blow  when 


48  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

his  wife  told  him  that  all  the  while  he  was  preach- 
ing he  carried  on  the  top  of  his  bald  head  a  black 
kid  glove  which  had  fallen  from  his  hat  when  he 
had  removed  it  on  entering  the  church.  The  con- 
gregation was  speculating  how  long  the  glove  would 
hold  its  place.  Guard  carefully  against  all  tricks 
and  eccentricities  of  manner  ;  let  neither  nervous- 
ness nor  absent-mindedness  betray  you  into  any 
habit  which  would  mar  the  effectiveness  of  the 
service.  It  has  been  said  that  it  is  with  the 
esthetic  sense  that  we  worship  God  ;  and  certainly 
we  should  train  ourselves  to  distinguish  and  to  prize 
at  its  full  value  the  beauty  as  well  as  the  strength 
that  ought  to  be  found  in  his  sanctuary. 

3.  From  these  preliminary  points,  of  appearance 
and  manner,  we  pass  on  to  consider  the  minister's 
habits  in  conducting  public  worship. 

(i)  As  the  first  of  these,  let  us  name  punctuality. 
Set  an  example,  where  an  example  certainly  needs 
to  be  set,  and  train  your  congregation  to  being  on 
time  by  being  on  time  yourself.  It  is  better  far  to 
be  too  soon  than  to  be  too  late,  and  indeed  the  few 
moments  which  you  spend  in  the  church  previous 
to  the  service  will  be  of  great  use  to  you.  They 
will  help  you  to  become  entirely  master  of  yourself, 
and  will  give  you  deliberateness  and  a  sense  of 
readiness.  Never  start  a  service  in  a  hurried  frame 
of  mind.  To  do  this  is  to  court  failure.  The  five 
minutes  lost  at  the  beginning  will  be  sure  to  follow 
you,  and  throughout  the  service  the  sound  of  a 
shaken  leaf  shall  chase  you.     On  the  other  hand. 


THE   PUBLIC   SERVICE  49 

Doctor  Dale  testifies  that  to  be  in  the  church  before 
the  service  and  to  "think  why  we  are  gathered  to- 
gether, and  what  promise  Christ  has  given  to  the 
two  or  three  who  meet  in  his  name,  is  to  almost 
certainly  insure  his  blessing." 

(2)  As  another  habit  to  be  cultivated,  we  mention 
decorum.  It  was  of  the  house  of  God  that  Paul 
wrote  :  "  Let  all  things  be  done  decently  and  in 
order."  ^ 

On  entering  the  pulpit  we  commend  the  habit  of 
silent  prayer.  In  conducting  the  service  avoid  any 
sense  of  pushing  on.  Have  frequent  pauses  be- 
tween the  various  parts.  Since  it  is  not  seemly  that 
persons  coming  late  should  be  shown  to  their  seats 
during  any  part  of  the  service,  these  pauses  should 
be  utilized  for  that  purpose.  In  concluding,  be  de- 
liberate in  pronouncing  the  benediction,  and  pause 
before  the  final  amen.  Be  very  careful  to  handle 
the  Bible  respectfully.  Do  not  remove  it  from  the 
desk.  Expound,  but  do  not  pound  it  as  you  preach. 
In  case  you  prefer  to  use  a  Bible  which  can  be  car- 
ried in  the  hand,  treat  it  with  reverence.  Do  not 
double  the  back  or  turn  down  the  leaves,  or  throw 
the  book  carelessly  upon  the  desk,  nor  use  it  as  an 
imaginary  catapult  to  be  driven  at  the  people  or  as 
a  figurative  standard  to  be  waved  over  them. 

(3)  This  suggests  that  we  also  urge  the  preacher 
to  be  devout  in  his  conduct  of  public  worship. 
Throughout  the  entire  service  be  a  worshiper  your- 
self.    Be  thoroughly  engaged  in  it,  so  that  as  each 

1  I  Cor.  14  :  40. 
D 


50  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

part  is  attended  to,  it  can  be  truthfully  said  of  you, 
"  Prayer  all  his  business,  all  his  pleasure,  praise." 
Doing  this  you  will  interest  and  affect  your  con- 
gregation from  the  beginning.  Of  Patrick  Henry 
pleading  in  Culpepper  courthouse.  Doctor  Alex- 
ander writes :  "  His  very  manner  in  rising  to  his 
feet,  and  his  attitude  before  the  court,  were  them- 
selves eloquence,  which  made  me  for  the  moment 
believe,  in  spite  of  the  most  damning  testimony, 
that  the  accused  were  innocent."  To  turn  to  one 
whose  long  ministry  was  devoted  to  a  nobler  task 
than  that  of  Patrick  Henry,  we  may  be  allowed  to 
quote  at  length  what  his  biographer  says  of  the 
conduct  of  religious  worship  by  the  late  John  Angel! 
James,  of  Birmingham,  England:  "As  Mr.  James 
slowly  ascended  the  pulpit,  the  stranger  would  see 
in  his  calm  and  solemn  countenance  that  his  spirit 
was  awed  by  a  sense  of  God's  presence  ;  and, 
after  the  opening  psalm  was  read,  and  a  hymn 
sung,  he  offered  a  prayer  which  was  generally 
characterized  by  the  profoundest  awe  and  reverence 
for  the  Divine  Majesty,  and  by  earnest,  sometimes 
impassioned  supplication  for  spiritual  blessings. 
The  Scriptures  were  then  read  a  second  time,  and 
a  second  prayer  was  offered,  in  which  intercession 
was  made  for  "all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men," 
for  the  queen  on  the  throne,  for  the  ministers  of 
the  crown,  for  judges  and  magistrates,  for  merchants 
and  tradesmen,  for  masters  and  servants,  for  the 
rich,  the  poor,  and  the  troubled,  for  all  Christian 
churches  and  ministers,  and  very  often  for  some 


THE   PUBLIC  SERVICE  51 

special  department  of  Christian  labor  ;  missions  in 
China  and  the  East  being  often  remembered.  And 
again,  at  the  close  of  the  prayer,  there  were  solemn 
ascriptions  of  praise,  sometimes  swelling  into  lofty 
eloquence,  to  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  The- 
tones  of  his  voice,  rich  and  deep,  his  manner — 
never  hurried  and  generally  very  deliberate — added 
solemnity  to  the  devotional  part  of  the  service  ; 
and  many,  1  should  suppose,  are  ready  to  acknowl- 
edge with  myself  that  his  prayers  were  often  char- 
acterized by  even  brighter  excellencies  than  his 
sermons."  ^ 

Note.  At  this  point  it  may  be  well  to  caution 
the  minister  against  running  either  to  the  extreme 
of  assumption  or  to  its  opposite,  the  extreme  of 
subservience. 

I.  He  is  no  more  a  priest  than  is  any  other  de- 
vout Christian  person  in  the  congregation.  He 
never  ceases  to  be  one  of  those  who  are  gathered 
for  worship.  "  The  pattern  of  Christian  worship 
is  not  the  tabernacle  or  temple.  We  see  not  Aaron 
entering  as  God's  high  priest  within  the  veil,  whilst 
the  people  are  standing  without,  waiting  for  the 
return  of  their  intercessor,  but  Paul  the  apostle  and 
servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  calling  the  people  '  breth- 
ren,' saying,  'Let  us  draw  near,' — minister  and 
people, — all  entering  within  the  veil  with  the  'com- 
mon supplication,'  Paul  kneeling  down  and  praying 
'  with  them  all.'  "  ^     Not  by  tone  or  gesture  should 

'"Life  and  Letters  of  J.  A.  James,"  by  R.  W.  Dale,  p.  618. 
^Pearsall,  "  Public  Worship,"  p.  12. 


52  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

the  minister  assume  the  office  of  priest.  It  is  even 
unnecessary  for  him  to  beckon  the  people  to  rise  to 
sing  ;  and  certainly  the  hand  should  never  be  lifted 
in  the  benediction  in  the  same  way  in  which  it  is 
raised  by  the  priest  who  claims  mysterious  author- 
ity by  virtue  of  episcopal  imposition, 

2.  Yet  while  the  minister  should  not  assume  the 
priestly,  as  little  should  he  fall  into  a  condition  of 
obsequious  subservience  to  his  congregation.  He 
is  in  the  pulpit  to  lead  their  devotions  as  truly  as  a 
general  is  at  his  post  to  marshal  his  troops.  The 
officer  who  should  say  to  his  soldiers,  "Shoulder 
arms,  if  you  please,"  would  fail  to  command  their 
respect.  The  minister  who  says,  "Sing,  if  you 
please,"  as  if  it  depended  on  their  acquiescence, 
or,  even  more  feebly,  "Shall  we  sing?"  as  if 
there  were  any  question  about  it,  has  yet  to  learn 
the  first  lesson  in  leadership.  "  He  is  to  direct 
them,  and  not  to  request  them,  to  celebrate  the 
praises  of  the  Lord.  Let  him  not  belittle  the  dig- 
nity of  his  office  by  introducing  phrases  which 
belong  merely  to  social  etiquette  into  the  worship 
of  Almighty  God."i 

II.  We  may  now  deal  with  the  order  for  worship 
in  the  public  service. 

I,  As  to  the  arrangement  of  the  various  parts  of 
the  service. 

(i)  You  must  see  to  it  that  due  attention  is  paid 
to  the  four  essentials  to  worship  of  which  we  have 
already  spoken  in  chapter  one,  namely,  devotion, 

'  "  The  Evangelist." 


THE   PUBLIC   SERVICE  53 

praise,  edification,  and  rest.  These  four  things 
should  be  met  and  ministered  to  by  the  four  ele- 
ments of  public  worship  :  communion  with  God  in 
prayer  ;  the  reverent  ascertainment  of  his  will  by 
the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  ;  the  unfolding,  appli- 
cation, and  enforcement  of  that  revelation  upon  the 
heart  and  conscience  by  preaching  ;  and  the  united 
ascription  of  thanksgiving  to  God  by  praising  him 
in  song.^ 

Beware  of  lengthening  any  one  part  of  the  serv- 
ice— the  sermon  for  example — at  the  expense  of  the 
whole.  In  the  service,  as  in  the  body,  the  mem- 
bers should  care  one  for  another,  knowing  that  no 
one  can  suffer  without  all  suffering  with  it.  The 
preacher  who,  one  Sunday  morning,  some  fifty 
years  ago,  omitted  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures 
from  the  usual  order  of  worship  in  a  Boston  church, 
and  afterward  explained  to  one  of  the  deacons  that 
he  did  so  because  he  wished  to  do  full  justice  to  his 
sermon,  was  very  properly  reminded  by  that  faith- 
ful official  that  perhaps  his  congregation  would  have 
consented  to  forego  a  portion  of  the  discourse  if 
they  could  have  had  instead  a  portion  of  God's 
word. 

One  of  Lyman  Beecher's  hearers  in  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church,  Cincinnati,  recalls  how,  on 
one  occasion,  the  preacher,  then  at  the  height  of 
his  powers,  came  in  late,  pressed  his  way  up  the 
crowded  aisle  with  a  piece  of  blotted  manuscript  in 
his  hand,  ascended  the  pulpit,  opened  the  Bible, 

i"The  Congregational  Idea,"  by  Dr.  Williston  Walker,  p.  7. 


54  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

spread  his  manuscript,  took  his  text,  and  was  about 
to  begin  his  sermon  without  any  preliminary  exer- 
cises. One  of  the  elders  rose  from  his  pew  and 
stood.  The  elder  looked  at  the  doctor,  the  doctor 
looked  at  the  elder.  The  elder  came  out  of  his 
pew,  the  doctor  came  down  the  stairs,  and  they 
met.  The  elder  whispered  a  few  words  in  the  doc- 
tor's ear,  the  doctor  reascended,  closed  his  Bible 
and  said  :    "  Let  us  pray," 

That  we  have  not  entirely  outgrown  the  fashion 
for  emphasizing  the  sermon,  even  though  the  rest  of 
the  service  is  thrown  into  the  shade  by  doing  so, 
may  be  seen  by  consulting  the  announcements  of 
Sunday  services  as  they  appear  in  the  Saturday 
journals.  How  often  the  notice  runs  to  the  effect 
that  the  minister  will  preach  at  10.30  A.  M.  and 
7.30  P.  M.,  as  though  there  were  to  be  no  other 
worship  than  that  which  is  enjoyed  by  listening  to 
him.  The  better  form  would  be  "  Public  worship 
at  10.30  A.  M.  and  7.30  P.  M.,  with  preaching  by 
the  pastor." 

(2)  Perhaps  it  is  only  necessary  to  say  in  passing 
that  it  is  wise  to  preserve  a  settled  order.  The 
congregation  should  not  have  its  attention  diverted 
from  the  thing  itself  to  the  way  in  which  it  is  done. 
We  further  counsel  that  for  the  convenience  of  the 
ministers  strange  to  the  church  who  will  occasion- 
ally conduct  the  service,  it  is  well  to  have  the  order 
of  worship  printed  clearly,  and  a  copy  laid  on  the 
pulpit  desk  where  it  can  readily  be  seen. 

(3)  In  view  of  the  disposition  to  multiply  the 


THE   PUBLIC  SERVICE  55 

parts  of  the  service  unnecessarily,  a  word  of  cau- 
tion may  be  in  place  on  this  point.  Many  a  serv- 
ice is  spoiled  because  it  is  so  much  broken  up.  The 
current  of  right  feeling  is  arrested  by  some  uncalled- 
for  anthem  or  some  irrelevant  chant.  The  minister 
obtrudes  himself  upon  the  congregation  by  a  need- 
less announcement  or  meaningless  bit  of  ritual  ;  and 
so  the  worshiper  is  set  back  when  he  ought  rather 
to  be  set  forward.  With  a  remembrance  of  the 
purposeless  elaboration  in  many  services,  we  turn 
with  some  relief  to  the  severe  plainness  of  the  old 
Puritan  order,  as  it  was  formerly  observed,  for  ex- 
ample, in  the  chapel  of  which  Dr.  R.  W.  Dale  was 
for  so  many  years  tlie  minister.  Its  lines  are  those 
of  the  Grecian  temple  rather  than  of  the  Gothic 
cathedral,  but  they  are  strong  in  their  sturdy  sim- 
plicity :  I,  The  reading  of  a  psalm.  2.  Singing.  3. 
Prayer.  4.  Reading  the  Scriptures.  5.  Prayer.  6. 
Singing.  7.  Sermon.  8.  Singing,  g.  Prayer  and 
benediction. 

Note  i.  The  minister  will  find  it  a  useful  thing 
to  keep  a  pastor's  register,  and  to  post  it  up  week 
by  week,  so  as  to  know  at  a  glance  when  a  certain 
hymn  has  been  sung  or  chapter  of  the  Bible  read. 
Doing  this  he  will  be  more  likely  to  insure  fresh- 
ness and  variety  in  his  selections. 

2.  This  may  be  the  best  place  in  which  to  urge 
that  the  collection  should  have  a  recognized  place 
in  the  Order  of  Service  and  be  always  considered 
an  act  of  worship.  Christian  beneficence  is  a  dis- 
tinct means  of  grace.     Treat  it  as  such.     Come 


56  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

down  from  the  pulpit  and  distribute  the  collection 
boxes  to  the  deacons,  or  whoever  they  be  that  take 
the  offerings.  While  the  collection  is  being  made 
repeat,  either  entirely  yourself  or  alternately  with 
the  choir,  suitable  texts  of  Scripture.  When  the 
boxes  are  brought  back  to  the  pulpit  receive 
them  and  let  the  congregation  rise  and  join  in  the 
doxology, — unless  that  has  been  already  sung, 
— and  in  any  case  offer  a  brief  prayer  presenting 
the  offering  to  God,  thanking  him  for  the  oppor- 
tunity of  giving  and  asking  him  to  accept  and  bless 
the  contribution. 

3.  As  to  the  length  of  the  service,  not  much 
needs  to  be  said.  The  age  in  which  we  live  is 
favorable  to  brevity  rather  than  to  length.  Two 
hundred  years  ago — mainly  in  consequence  of  the 
staying  power  of  the  minister  in  the  prayers  and 
the  sermon — the  service  would  at  times  last  from 
three  to  six  hours.  The  order  of  worship  in  the 
meeting-house  at  Chester,  England,  where  Matthew 
Henry  ministered  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  is  thus 
described:  "  Every  Lord's  Day  morning,  after  secret 
and  family  devotions,  he  joined  his  congregation  in 
public  worship  at  nine  o'clock.  The  service  opened 
with  the  hundredth  Psalm,  then  followed  a  brief 
but  fervent  invocation  :  then  a  portion  from  Old 
Testament  Scripture  was  solemnly  read  and  ex- 
pounded in  its  order.  After  a  second  singing  he 
prayed  again  at  greater  length  ;  then  followed  the 
sermon  of  about  an  hour,  with  a  closing  prayer, 
singing,  and  benediction.     The  service  lasted  up- 


THE  PUBLIC  SERVICE  57 

ward  of  two  hours,  while  that  in  the  afternoon 
was  exactly  similar,  except  that  he  then  expounded 
from  the  New  Testament  Scriptures." 

When  Edward  Irving's  new  church  was  opened 
by  Dr.  Chalmers,  the  equanimity  of  the  great 
Scottish  preacher  was  sorely  tried.  "  I  undertook," 
said  he,  "to  open  Irving's  new  church  in  London. 
There  was  a  prodigious  want  of  tact  in  the  length 
of  his  prayers — forty  minutes.  He  said  he  would 
assist  me  by  reading  a  chapter  for  me.  He  chose 
the  longest  in  the  Bible,  and  went  on  for  an  hour 
and  a  half."  At  present  we  need  to  guard  against 
falling  into  the  opposite  extreme  to  that  in  which 
Irving  displayed  his  gift  of  continuance.  The  min- 
ister must  not  consent  to  be  entirely  governed  by 
the  fashion  of  the  hour.  Very  much  depends  upon 
how  the  service  is  conducted.  It  may  be  short  in 
time  and  yet  seem  very  long.  It  may  fill  up  the 
allotted  hour  and  a  half  and  yet  seem  only  too 
short.  Well-arranged,  continuous  in  plan  and  pur- 
pose, fervid  and  devout,  the  service  will  not  tax 
the  patience  of  the  congregation  so  much  as  if,  lack- 
ing those  features,  the  whole  lasts  for  less  than 
sixty  minutes.  A  railroad  journey  on  an  ill-laid 
track,  broken  by  frequent  pauses,  and  by  constant 
stops  at  way  stations,  carries  you  over  a  few  miles 
only  and  yet  wearies  you  more  than  one  swift  run 
of  four  times  the  length.  Have  a  clear  aim  in 
every  service.  Toward  that  aim  let  it  move  from 
the  first  words  to  the  last.  Make  Abraham  your 
model  when  he  and  his  family  "went  forth  to  go 


58  PUBLIC   WORSHIP 

into  the   land  of   Canaan,   and    into   the   land    of 
Canaan  they  came." 

4.  This  leads  me  to  glance  at  the  question  of  pro- 
portion in  the  service.  The  minister  must  secure 
by  previous  practice  and  arrangement  the  timely 
and  proportional  introduction  of  ail  the  parts.  Re- 
calling the  worship  in  Trinity  Church,  Irvine,  as  it 
was  conducted  by  Dr.  W.  B,  Robertson,  his  biog- 
rapher notes  the  living  form  which  the  service 
took,  "shaped  by  the  artistic  mind  of  the  pastor. 
The  three  correlatives,  as  he  called  them, — praise, 
prayer,  and  preaching, — were  built  up  by  him  on 
the  principle  of  a  progressive  unity."  ^  This  pro- 
gressive unity  does  not  come  by  accident,  hi  order 
to  insure  it,  and  just  because  you  have  not  the 
help  of  a  set  form  (such  as  a  liturgy  affords),  you 
are  bound  to  prepare  for  each  service  with  great 
care.  There  are  ministers  who  go  through  the  en- 
tire service,  so  far  as  it  is  practicable  to  do  so,  on 
the  previous  Saturday  morning.  Occasionally  this 
should  certainly  be  done.  And  always  you  must 
keep  the  various  parts  of  the  service  and  their 
claims  to  consideration  well  in  view  as  the  worship 
proceeds.  Do  not  sing  too  many  stanzas,  or  read 
too  much  Scripture,  or  prolong  unduly  the  prayers 
or  the  sermon.  If  at  any  time  there  is  sufficient 
reason  for  a  longer  prayer  or  a  longer  sermon  than 
usual,  anticipate  this  by  shortening  other  parts  of 
the  service.  But  as  a  rule  it  will  not  be  necessary 
to  do  this.     The  minister  is  likely  to  meet  the  ends 

1  "  Robertson  of  Irvine,"  by  A.  Guthrie,  p.  246. 


THE   PUBLIC  SERVICE  59 

of  public  worship  best  when  he  practises  generosity 
in  psalmody  and  economy  in  preaching.  And  how- 
ever this  may  be,  the  impression  which  is  left  by 
the  whole  service  should  be  harmonious. 

Note,  a  word  as  to  the  announcements  which 
the  minister  needs  to  make.  We  counsel  that  he 
take  this  matter  entirely  into  his  own  hands.  He 
is  responsible  for  the  service,  and  he  will  do  well 
to  claim  and  to  exercise  the  vetoing  power  if  he 
chooses  to  do  so. 

In  danger  of  being  snowed  under  by  an  onset  of 
pulpit  notices,  the  bewildered  pastor  will  often 
envy  the  fearless  Dr.  Robert  Lee,  of  Edinburgh, 
when  he  threw  down  a  heap  of  them  with  the  ex- 
clamation, "  This  pulpit  is  not  the  Sunday  edition 
of  the  'North  British  Advertiser.'"  Assuredly 
the  minister  is  under  no  obligation  to  announce  any 
meeting  outside  of  his  own  church  which  is  to  be 
held  at  an  hour  when  he  himself  has  a  religious 
service.  If  a  notice  has  to  be  given,  he  will  do 
well  to  be  brief  and  simple  in  giving  it.  Do  not 
take  the  place  of  advance  agent  for  a  show.  Do 
not  commit  yourself  to  extravagant  laudation. 
Should  you  not  excel  in  making  announcements,  it 
may  even  be  well  to  write  out  what  has  to  be  said. 
The  most  eloquent  of  men  have  blundered  over 
this  ungrateful  task,  it  was  Robert  Hall  who  gave 
notice  of  a  missionary  meeting  in  the  following 
words:  "Mr.  Birt,  of  Birmingham  ;  Mr.  Dyer,  of 
London  ;  Mr.  Roberts,  of  Bristol,  and  other  minis- 
ters  will    be   present.     The    Rev.    Richard    Ashe, 


6o  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

Esq.,  will  take  the  chair.  Such,  my  brethren,  are 
the  performances  to  be  performed  here  next  week." 
After  a  brief  pause,  by  way  of  escaping  from  the 
comedy  of  errors,  he  added  :  "  A  very  important 
meeting,  my  brethren,  very  important  indeed,  and 
on  a  very  important  occasion.  I  hope,  therefore, 
you  will  attend."^  The  best  plan  is  to  print  week 
by  week,  or  else,  if  you  need  to  be  more  economi- 
cal, to  write  and  put  in  a  conspicuous  place,  a 
church  calendar,  and  content  yourself  by  direct- 
ing attention  to  it. 

We  must  in  addition  enter  a  protest  before  clos- 
ing this  chapter,  against  the  habit  of  distributing 
printed  matter  through  the  pews.  This  ought  never 
to  be  done.  Of  course  it  is  entirely  objectionable 
when  a  tradesman  is  permitted  to  scatter  Japanese 
fans  over  the  church,  with  his  own  advertisements 
gaudily  printed  upon  them  ;  and  scarcely  less  so 
when  the  offender  is  the  minister  himself,  inserting 
in  every  hymn  book  a  slip  of  paper  puffing  his  own 
books.  But  even  literature  which  is  not  mercenary 
or  impertinent  should  have  no  place  in  the  pews. 
There  must  be  nothing  to  distract  the  mind  or  di- 
vert the  attention  of  the  worshiper.  The  rocky 
banks  of  the  river  or  the  giant  trees  of  the  forest 
ought  not  to  be  desecrated  by  advertising  nostrums 
of  the  quack  doctor  or  the  wares  of  the  pushing 
merchant,  but  still  less  should  anything  be  suffered 
to  intrude  upon  the  hour  and  place  devoted  to  the 
worship  of  God. 

1  Trestrail,  "  College  Life  in  Bristol,"  pp.  7g,  84. 


THE  PUBLIC  SERVICE  6l 


Appendix. 


The  Order  of  Worship. — The  advance  in  enrich- 
ment of  worship  in  non-liturgical  churches  may  be 
seen  from  a  comparison  of  the  following  examples 
of  orders  of  service. 

1.  The  Puritan  model,  which  is  characterized  by 
great  simplicity,  is  not  often  found  to-day  in  its 
primitive  integrity.  i.  Singing  (sometimes  fol- 
lowed by  a  brief  prayer).  2.  First  Scripture  read- 
ing. 3.  Prayer.  4.  Singing.  5.  Second  Scripture 
reading.  6.  Singing.  7.  Prayer.  8.  Notices  and 
Collection.  9.  Singing.  10.  Sermon.  11.  Sing- 
ing (sometimes  preceded  by  a  brief  prayer).  12. 
Benediction. 

The  commendable  features  in  this  arrangement 
are  the  congregational  character  of  the  service, — 
and  indeed  it  is  generally  conducive  to  hearty  con- 
gregational singing, — and  the  two  readings  of  Scrip- 
ture. 

2.  The  Puritan  model,  enriched  by  the  substitu- 
tion of  the  doxology,  followed  by  the  Lord's  Prayer 
repeated  by  the  minister  and  the  congregation,  and 
by  a  chant,  sung  by  the  people  led  by  the  choir. 
I.  Doxology  and  Lord's  Prayer.  2,  Scripture  read- 
ing. 3.  Chanting  of  a  psalm.  4.  Scripture  read- 
ing. 5.  Chant.  6.  Prayer.  7.  Hymn,  8.  Sermon. 
9.  Hymn.    10.  Concluding  prayer  and  benediction. 

3.  More  elaborate  forms,  i.  Opening  sentences 
repeated  by  the  minister  and  people.  2.  The  in- 
troduction early  in  the  service  of  a  prayer  of  con- 


62  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

fession.  3.  The  "amen"  sung  at  the  close  of 
each  hymn.  4.  The  use  of  the  "glorias."  5. 
The  introduction  of  one  or  more  anthems.  6. 
The  reading  of  the  Ten  Commandments.  7.  The 
minister  hands  the  offering  plates  to  the  ushers, 
and  gives,  alternating  with  the  choir,  the  offertory 
responses  ;  the  plates  are  received  after  the  offer- 
ing has  been  taken,  with  a  brief  prayer.  8.  The 
use  of  the  creed,  and  of  other  parts  of  a  liturgical 
service. 

Example  i.  i.  Organ  prelude.  2.  Hymns  of 
adoration.  3.  The  confession.  4.  The  gloria.  5. 
The  Lord's  Prayer.  6.  Anthem.  7.  The  Holy 
Scriptures.  8.  Hymn.  9.  Prayer.  10.  Hymn.  11. 
The  offering.  12.  The  Gospel.  13.  Anthem.  14. 
Sermon.     15.  Hymn.     16.  Benediction. 

Example  2.  i.  Voluntary.  2.  Anthem.  3.  The 
Lord's  Prayer.  4.  Hymn.  5.  First  Scripture  les- 
son, 6.  Chant.  7.  Second  Scripture  lesson.  8. 
Anthem,  g.  Announcements.  10.  Hymn.  11.  Ser- 
mon. 12.  The  offering  and  solo.  13.  Hymn.  14. 
Benediction. 

Example  3.  i.  Voluntary.  2.  Doxology.  3. 
Lord's  Prayer.  4.  Anthem.  5,  Reading  the  Com- 
mandments. 6.  Response  by  choir.  7.  Scripture 
lesson.  8.  Prayer,  g.  Collection.  10.  Notices. 
II.  Hymn.  12.  Sermon.  13.  Hymn.  14.  Prayer 
and  benediction  with  the  congregation  seated. 

In  the  first  of  the  examples  the  use  of  four  con- 
gregational hymns  is  to  be  commended.  The  second 
example  is  taken  from  the  City  Temple,  London 


THE  PUBLIC   SERVICE  63 

(Dr.  Joseph  Parker's),  and  much  of  the  music 
which  in  America  would  be  left  to  the  choir,  is 
shared  by  the  whole  congrefiation.  The  third  ex- 
ample is  open  to  objection  that  the  reading  of  the 
Scripture  is  directly  followed  by  the  prayer.  It  is 
wiser  to  have  a  change  of  voice  between  these  two 
important  parts  of  the  service. 

The  disposition  to  allot  to  the  choir  an  undue  pro- 
portion of  parts  in  the  service  may  be  seen  in  : 

Example  4.  i.  Prelude.  2.  Anthem.  3.  invo- 
cation followed  by  Lord's  Prayer.  4.  Psalm  re- 
sponsively  by  minister  and  choir.  5.  Hymn.  6. 
Scripture  lesson.  7.  Anthem.  8.  Prayer.  9.  An- 
nouncements and  offering.  10.  Hymn.  ir.  Ser- 
mon. 12.  Hymn.  13.  Benediction.  In  some  in- 
stances one  of  the  hymns  is  assigned  to  the  choir, 
leaving  still  less  for  the  congregation  to  do. 


IV 
CONGREGATIONAL  RESPONSE 


SUMMARY 


I.  Congregational  Worship  Must  aim  at  Impres- 

sion AND  Expression. 

1.  Impression  is  especially  reached  through  the  reading  of 

the  Scriptures  and  the  sermon. 

2.  Expression  is  reached  through  other  parts  of  the  service. 

Here  comes  in  the  element  of  congregational  response. 

II.  The  Neglect  of  this  Responsive  element  in 

Public  worship. 

1.  Evidences  of  this  to  be  found  in  the  service  itself. 

2.  Evidences  of  this  to  be  found  in  the  congregation,     (i) 

In  dissatisfaction  and  defection  ;  (2)  In  indifference 
and  lack  of  affection  for  the  service. 

3.  History  of  Protestantism  partly  accounts  for  this  neglect. 

4.  Demand  for  more  expression  traced  in  changes  in  service. 

iii.  to  what  the  demand  for  congregational 
Response  is  Due. 

1.  To  a  natural  instinct. 

2.  To  a  true  conception  of  public  worship. 

3.  To  the  growth  of  congregational  culture. 

4.  To  external  influences. 

5.  To  the  Sunday-school. 

6.  To  an  increase  in  Christian  union. 

IV.  HOW  THE    DEMAND  MAY  BE  MET.     NOT  WISE  TO 
IGNORE  IT. 

1.  By  an  intelligent  maintenance  of  the  Puritan  model. 

2.  By  giving  to   the  congregation  a  larger  share  in   the 

service,  (i)  Congregational  singing;  (2)  The  re- 
sponsive reading  of  the  psalm  ;  (3)  The  recital  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer  ;  (4)  The  congregational  "  amen  "  ; 
(5)  The  more  general  use  of  the  Bibles  in  the  pews. 

V.  ADVANTAGES    ACCRUING    FROM    THE  CULTIVATION 

OF  THIS  RESPONSE: 
I.  To  the  service.    2.  The  sermon.    3.  The  minister.    4. 
The  congregation.     5.  Religion  at  large. 


IV 

CONGREGATIONAL  RESPONSE 

I.  Two  ends  every  act  of  congregational  worship 
must  aim  to  reach.  These  are  impression  and  ex- 
pression. 

1.  The  chief  purpose  served  by  the  reading  of 
the  Scripture  and  by  the  preaching  of  the  sermon 
is  impression.  Through  these  channels  the  truth  is 
explained,  illustrated,  and  applied. 

2.  The  chief  purpose  served  by  the  other  parts 
of  the  service,  by  prayer,  for  instance,  and  praise, 
is  expression.  "All  the  earth  shall  worship  thee, 
and  shall  sing  unto  thee.  They  shall  sing  to  thy 
name.'"  This  second  purpose  is  what  we  have  to 
deal  with  in  this  chapter,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  over- 
estimate its  importance.  Upon  it  all  branches  of 
the  church  have  insisted.  The  liturgy  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church  is  entitled  "  The  Book  of  Common 
Prayer."  Through  the  "Westminster  Directory 
for  Worship  "  the  Presbyterian  Church  declares 
that  "  since  one  primary  design  of  public  ordinances 
is  to  pay  social  acts  of  homage  to  the  most  high 
God,  ministers  ought  to  be  careful  not  to  make 
their  sermons  so  long  as  to  interfere  with  or  exclude 
the  more  important  duties  of  prayer  and  praise." 

>  Ps.  66  :  4. 

67 


68  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

Impression,  that  is,  was  not  to  be  indulged  at  the 
expense  of  expression,  hi  congregational  churches 
the  minister  by  saying,  "  Let  us  pray,"  or  "  Let 
us  sing,"  gives  expression  to  the  conviction  that 
the  congregation  must  be  allowed  to  utter  forth  its 
praise  in  the  hymns  and  its  prayers  in  the  audible 
"amen."  However  far  in  our  practice  we  may 
have  wandered  from  this  early  conception  of  what 
worship  demands,  these  forms  keep  before  us  the 
true  conception.  So  do  our  hymns,  many  of  which 
are  entirely  inappropriate  for  any  but  congregational 
use.  James  Montgomery  furnishes  the  model  for 
congregational  praise  when  he  sings  : 

Stand  up  and  bless  the  Lord, 

Ye  people  of  his  choice  ; 
Stand  up  and  bless  the  Lord  your  God, 

With  heart  and  soul  and  voice. 

IL  The  time  has  come  when  attention  should  be 
called  afresh  to  the  neglect  of  this  responsive  ele- 
ment in  public  worship. 

I.  Of  this  neglect  the  service  as  it  is  generally 
conducted  furnishes  sufficient  evidences.  A  writer 
on  the  subject  charges  the  non-liturgical  churches 
with  gradually  attenuating  public  worship  until  it 
has  reached  "  a  painful,  sometimes  a  ridiculous  ex- 
treme of  thinness.  It  is  the  exception  that  congre- 
gations worship.  They  listen.  Their  mental  atti- 
tude is  unchanged  from  beginning  to  end.  They 
not  only  listen  to  the  sermon,  the  prayer  is  listened 
to.     There  is  no  general  participation  in  worship. 


CONGREGATIONAL  RESPONSE  69 

The  result  is  that  only  those  are  attracted  to  church 
who  are  interested  in  good  preaching,  and  who 
enjoy  the  singing  of  a  quartette  choir."*  Under 
this  arrangement  a  popular  preacher  whose  service 
is  famed  for  its  fine  music  decides  to  introduce  a 
short  liturgy,  "being  more  and  more  struck  either 
by  the  unintelligence  or  the  miraculous  patience  of 
ordinary  congregations."^  The  Rev.  A.  K.  H. 
Boyd,  of  St.  Andrews,  Scotland,  after  the  experi- 
ence of  a  long  life  in  the  ministry,  declared  that 
"he  thought  one  thing  that  kept  the  people  from 
taking  a  greater  interest  in  the  services  was  that 
the  worshipers  had  too  little  to  do  in  them."  A 
number  of  ministers  and  laymen  discussing  the 
subject  are  not  disposed  to  charge  with  much  exag- 
geration the  description  which  one  of  them  gives  of 
the  service  to  which  he  is  accustomed,  as  "  a  com- 
bination from  the  concert  hall  and  the  lecture  room, 
with  a  little  worship  thrown  in." 

2.  Further  evidence  of  this  neglect  of  the  respon- 
sive element  in  public  worship  may  be  found  in  the 
congregation  itself. 

(i)  Very  often  it  happens  that  persons  dissatis- 
fied with  the  service  as  it  is  now  ordinarily  con- 
ducted in  the  non-liturgical  churches,  go  elsewhere. 
It  is  the  opinion  of  many  who  have  studied  this  sub- 
ject that  it  is  •'  the  emphasis  on  worship  that  holds 
the  masses  of  the  people  in  the  continental  countries 
of  Europe  so  true  to  the  Papal  Church  ;   and  in 

1  "  Andover  Review."  Vol.  II.,  Sept..  1882. 
-Dr.  Joseph  Parker,  City  Temple.  London. 


70  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

America  it  is  this  that  has  been  the  chief  reason  of 
the  growth  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  despite  its  prel- 
acy and  sacramentarianism."  Professor  Park,  of 
Andover,  welcoming  the  same  ritual,  refreshed  by 
the  same  liturgy,  and  listening  to  the  same  chant  in 
Cairo,  in  Jerusalem,  in  Boston,  gives  it  as  his  opin- 
ion that  "the  services  of  this  church  are  faithful 
to  its  history,  and  here  is  one  secret  of  its  power." 
The  service  of  the  Episcopal  Church  touches  the 
gracious  nature  of  Thomas  Erskine,  of  Linlathan, 
although  bred  in  Puritanism.  He  says  :  "  It  brings 
us  all  so  much  into  one,  and  it  makes  the  minister 
so  much  the  mouth  and  the  leader  of  the  people, 
instead  of  lifting  him  out  from  the  people,  and  mak- 
ing him  the  only  doer  of  anything  in  the  church."  ' 
(2)  That  this  natural  craving  for  a  responsive 
share  in  public  worship  has  not  been  adequately 
met  by  us  is  further  shown  by  the  indifference  and 
the  lack  of  enthusiastic  loyalty  to  the  service  on 
the  part  of  so  many  in  the  churches.  "  Congre- 
gationalists,"  it  is  said  by  one  of  their  own  number, 
"are  bound  together  more  by  the  simplicity,  not  to 
say  barrenness,  of  their  forms  of  worship  than  by 
the  adequacy  and  richness  of  their  doctrinal  teach- 
ing."^ The  young  people  cherish  little  affection  for 
the  service,  apart  from  their  association  of  it  with 
some  one  minister  whose  prayers,  reading  of  the 
Scriptures,  or  general  spirit  impresses  them  favor- 
ably.   Nor  can  it  be  said  that  their  elders  regard  the 

1 "  Letters  of  Thomas  Erskine,"  p.  iy6. 
2  President  Hyde,  Bowdoin  College. 


CONGREGATIONAL  RESPONSE  7 1 

service  in  which  they  have  so  slight,  a  share  with 
the  same  attachment  that  is  felt  by  those  who  are 
accustomed  to  a  liturgical  form  of  worship. 

In  general  it  may  be  true  to  say  that  the  ordinary 
service  too  often  leaves  the  worshiper  with  a  sense 
of  something  lacking  yet.  The  aesthetic  faculty 
has  very  likely  been  ministered  to  by  the  music, 
and  the  intellect  interested  in  the  sermon  ;  even 
the  spiritual  nature  may  have  been  touched  by  the 
prayers,  if  well-compacted,  well-worded,  and  de- 
vout. But  the  craving  for  personal  expression  has 
been  sparsely  met,  if  met  at  all,  and  perhaps  the 
worshiper  goes  away  from  the  service  with  the  sigh 
of  the  psalmist :  "  As  the  heart  panteth  after  the 
water  brooks,  so  panteth  my  soul  after  thee,  O 
God.  My  soul  thirsteth  for  God,  for  the  living 
God  ;  when  shall  I  come  and  appear  before  God.''  "^ 

3.  It  concerns  us  little  at  the  present  time  that 
one  main  reason  for  this  neglect  of  the  responsive 
element  in  public  worship  is  to  be  found  in  the 
history  of  Protestantism.  Without  any  question. 
Protestantism  represents  the  revolt  of  the  Reform- 
ers against  the  ritual  and  sacerdotalism  of  Rome. 
Even  the  Reformers,  however,  were  not  entirely 
agreed  as  to  how  far  this  revolt  should  be  carried. 
Luther  held  that  everything  was  permissible  in  the 
service  of  the  house  of  God,  except  what  was  for- 
bidden by  the  Bible,  and  the  Anglicans  have  shared 
with  the  Lutherans  the  same  view.^     Zwingli  and 

'  Ps.  42  :  I.     2"Xhe    Congregational    Idea   of   Worship,"  by    Williston 
Walker.  Ph.  D  ,  pp.  6,  7. 


72  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

Calvin,  going  a  step  farther,  believed  nothing  should 
be  practised  in  public  worship  but  what  was  ex- 
pressly sanctioned  by  the  word  of  God.  The  Puri- 
tans represented  that  view  in  England,  and  later  in 
America.  The  dread  of  popery  need  not  preclude 
our  using  the  most  praiseworthy  secret  of  its 
strength.  Nor  are  we  haunted,  as  were  the  New 
England  churches  of  the  seventeenth  century,  by 
a  horror  of  that  liturgy  which  had  been  forced 
upon  their  fathers  at  the  edge  of  the  sword. 

The  demand  that  this  responsive  impulse  in  our 
natures  be  satisfied  in  public  worship  comes,  in 
many  instances,  from  the  descendants  of  the  Puri- 
tans, from  the  very  men  who  reverence  their  his- 
tory and  emulate  their  spirit.'  It  is  they  who  crave 
that  more  sympathy  be  shown  in  our  service  for 
this  instinct  of  reverence  and  this  craving  for  com- 
mon worship.  It  is  one  of  them  who  declares  his 
conviction  that  "our  defects  in  church  service  are 
traceable  to  the  dominance  of  intellect  over  feel- 
ing." ^  "Our  services  are  barren,"  says  Henry 
Ward  Beecher,  "  not  from  any  want  of  common 
forms  of  devotion,  but  from  the  want  of  common 
sympathy.  A  church  has  a  right  to  the  gifts  of 
every  one  of  its  members,  and  the  minister  is  set 
to  disclose  and  develop  them."  Others  besides 
George  Eliot  have  shared  her  feeling  at  Nuremburg, 
when  she  writes:'  "We  turned  into  the  famous 
St.  Sebald's  for  a  minute,  where  a  Protestant  cler- 

1  Cf.  Dr.  W.  J.  Tucker.  "Yale  Lectures."  p.  126. 
2  •■  Life  of  W.  F.  Stevenson."  p.  84.  3"  Life."  p.  370. 


CONGREGATIONAL  RESPONSE  73 

gyman  was  reading  in  a  cold,  formal  way  under  the 
grand  Gothic  arches.  Then  we  went  to  the  Catholic 
church,  the  Frauen  Kirche,  where  the  organ  and 
voices  were  giving  forth  a  glorious  mass,  and  we 
stood  with  a  feeling  of  brotherhood  among  the 
standing  congregation  till  the  last  note  of  the  organ 
had  died  out." 

4.  The  successive  changes  in  the  direction  of  a 
responsive  service  furnish  the  most  convincing  proof 
of  the  power  of  this  demand  for  fuller  expression  in 
our  congregational  worship,  it  is  a  far  cry,  indeed, 
from  the  era  of  Puritan  plainness  to  the  order  of 
service  adopted  in  many  of  our  churches  at  the 
present  time.  There  is,  however,  scarcely  an  inno- 
vation over  which  there  has  not  been  a  struggle. 
The  hymn  has  won  its  place  in  the  teeth  of  an  op- 
position which  has  objected  that  no  common  act  of 
worship  should  be  tolerated  in  a  mixed  congregation, 
composed  of  professedly  Christian  persons  and  those 
who  have  made  no  such  profession.  The  reading 
of  the  Bible  without  any  comment  was  sturdily 
condemned  by  the  men  who,  with  a  bitter  remem- 
brance of  an  enforced  liturgy,  insisted  that  all  book 
worship  savored  of  popery.  But  in  the  course  of 
this  century  the  non-liturgical  congregations  have 
grown  accustomed  to  the  responsive  reading  of  a 
psalm,  or  better  still,  to  a  chant,  in  which  all  are 
invited  to  join,  to  the  public  repetition  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  to  the  use  of  the  gloria,  to  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments read  by  the  minister  and  followed  by  a 
congregational  response.     All  these  are  concessions 


74  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

made  by  the  Puritan  ideal,  not  to  the  spirit  which 
demands  an  enrichment  of  service,  such  as  is  fur- 
nished by  the  anthem,  for  example,  but  to  the 
craving  on  the  part  of  the  congregation  for  a  more 
active  part  in  the  public  worship  of  God. 

III.  It  may  be  well  at  this  point  to  inquire  to 
what  this  demand  for  congregational  response  is 
due. 

1.  From  what  has  been  already  said  it  may  be 
inferred  that,  in  the  first  place,  it  can  be  traced  to 
a  natural  instinct.  To  possess  a  faculty  for  the  ex- 
pression of  religious  emotions  and  not  to  use  it,  is 
unnatural.  The  sense  of  wrong  under  which  the 
suppression  of  that  faculty  labors  will  be  ten-fold 
increased  if  it  be  wakened  to  vigorous  life  by  the 
day,  the  place,  and  the  service  devoted  to  religion. 
The  sufferings  of  Joseph  were  aggravated  indeed, 
when,  cast  into  the  pit  in  which  there  was  not  even 
a  drop  of  water  to  assuage  his  thirst,  he  saw  his 
brethren  sit  down  to  eat  bread.  Longing,  perhaps, 
for  just  such  audible  expression  as  we  are  discuss- 
ing, Daniel  Macmillan  found  his  way  into  a  church 
which  gave  him  a  chance  to  join  heartily  in  its  re- 
sponses, and  almost  at  once  it  won  his  affection.  "  it 
seemed,"  says  he,  "so  true  to  my  nature  that  my 
whole  heart  could  find  utterance  then."  ^ 

2.  Nor  need  it  be  denied  that  we  are  coming  to  a 
truer  conception  of  what  public  worship  must  be. 
hi  one  word,  it  must  be  common  worship.  The 
service  must  be  so  arranged  that  the  worshiper  can 

1  "  Life,"  p.  74. 


CONGREGATIONAL  RESPONSE  75 

give  frequent  audible  expression  to  his  emotions  of 
penitence,  gratitude,  joy,  and  aspiration.  The 
temple  service  in  Jerusalem  (the  one  divine  model 
for  worship)  was  highly  responsive.  "  The  people 
had  their  large  vocal  part  in  the  worship.  A  great 
orchestra  of  trumpets  and  cymbals,  psaltery  and 
harps,  accompanying  the  trained  voices  of  the  Le- 
vites,  swelled  the  volume  of  praise.  '  All  the 
children  of  Israel  fell  down  on  their  faces  to  the 
ground,  and  worshipped  and  praised  the  Lord, 
saying,  For  he  is  good,  for  his  mercy  endureth 
for  ever.'  And  as  the  psalm  was  chanted  describ- 
ing God's  marvelous  works  of  creation  and  provi- 
dence, still  the  people  gave  back  their  glad  multi- 
tudinous chorus  :  '  O  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord, 
for  he  is  good.'  Sang  the  priests  :  'Who  overthrew 
Pharaoh  and  his  hosts  in  the  Red  sea  ;  who  smote 
great  kings,  and  slew  mighty  kings  ;  Sihori  king  of 
the  Amorites,  and  Og  king  of  Bashan.'  And  after 
each  clause,  came  rolling  back  the  earthquake  shout 
of  the  people,  '  For  his  mercy  endureth  for  ever.'  " 
3.  Probably  there  is  also  among  us  to-day  an  in- 
crease in  congregational  culture.  The  eighteenth 
century  and  the  century  which  preceded  it  saw  little 
enough  of  this,  even  in  the  churches  where  a  liturgy 
v/as  used.  Often  the  services,  as  they  are  described 
by  George  Fox  and  Samuel  Pepys,  and  later  by 
John  Wesley  and  William  Cowper,  were  lamenta- 
bly deficient  in  decorum,  to  say  nothing  of  devout- 
ness.  The  Episcopal  Church  service  of  to-day  is 
very  unlike  that  which  was  familiar  to  Fielding  and 


76  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

Hogarth.  It  furnishes  less  food  for  the  pen  or  the 
brush  satirist,  but  far  more  for  the  heart  and  mind 
of  the  worshiper.  Among  the  churches  which  use 
the  freer  form,  this  advance  in  culture  registers  its 
growth  in  the  better  architecture  of  the  church,  in 
the  greater  thought  and  care  bestowed  on  the  con- 
duct of  the  service,  and  in  the  improved  selections 
of  hymns  which  are  used.  Worship  has  become, 
in  most  cases,  statelier  and  more  settled.  Our  best 
services  are  now  almost  as  uniform  as  though  a 
liturgy  were  employed.  But  meanwhile  the  power 
of  the  Methodist  revival  has  died  away,  the  congre- 
gation is  no  longer  encouraged  to  give  emotional  re- 
sponse to  its  feelings,  the  stated  as  well  as  the  im- 
promptu "amen  "  is  not  heard  any  longer,  and  the 
people  often  seek  in  vain  for  some  channel  through 
which  their  emotions  may  flow. 

4.  The  lack  of  this  is  felt  all  the  more  as  we  are 
influenced  by  other  forms  of  worship.  At  opposite 
extremes  we  note  two  :  the  liturgical,  which  is  rep- 
resented by  the  services  in  Roman  and  Anglican 
churches,  and  the  revivalistic,  which  in  the  last 
twenty-five  years  has  become  better  organized 
than  it  was  formerly,  and  in  which  the  singing  of 
Mr.  Sankey  and  those  who  have  followed  him,  and 
the  still  more  rousing  choruses  of  the  Salvation 
Army,  whatever  else  they  have  done,  have  certainly 
given  every  worshiper  an  opportunity  for  response. 

5.  The  Sunday-school  is  little  more  than  a  century 
old.  In  the  form  most  familiar  to  us  it  is  still  younger. 
To  the  causes  which  have  done  much  to  stimulate 


CONGREGATIONAL  RESPONSE  -]-] 

the  demand  for  congregational  response,  it  may  be 
safe  to  add  the  unconscious  influence  of  the  Sunday- 
school.  In  many  schools  there  is  now  a  carefully 
prepared  service,  much  of  which  is  responsive,  the 
united  repetition  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  is  common, 
and  even  the  Apostles'  Creed  may  sometimes  be 
heard,  while  the  reading  of  the  lesson  for  the  day 
in  response  by  the  superintendent  and  classes  has 
prepared  the  people  to  seek  in  the  congregation  at 
least  as  much  liberty  as  is  accorded  to  the  school. 

6.  Are  we  not  also  warranted  in  concluding  that 
the  growth  within  our  own  times  of  Christian  union 
has  disposed  each  branch  of  the  church  to  profit  by 
the  excellencies  of  all  the  rest  }  The  decline  in 
sectarian  bitterness,  which  is  widely  different  from 
loyalty  to  the  truth  as  we  may  hold  it,  has  brought 
many  of  the  great  denominations  of  Christendom 
within  sight  of  each  other.  The  baptistery  may 
now  be  found  in  Congregationalist,  Episcopalian, 
Methodist,  and  Presbyterian  churches.  In  the 
Christian  activity  which  quite  as  much  as  Christian 
thought  distinguishes  this  century,  all  who  love  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  have  been  drawn  together.  It 
would  be  strange,  indeed,  if  Congregationalism, 
which,  being  bound  by  no  rubric,  is  open  to  adapt 
what  is  best  wherever  it  is  found,  should  not  have 
seen  that  elsewhere  and  with  great  power  in  other 
denominations  than  its  own,  the  craving  for  congre- 
gational response  is  happily  met,  and  that  beyond 
its  own  borders  there  are  materials  which  it  can 
with  advantage  build  into  its  public  worship. 


78  PUBLIC   WORSHIP 

IV.  It  remains  for  us  to  inquire  how  this  demand 
for  Congregational  Response  may  be  met. 

The  subject  has  received  much  attention  of  late. 
As  far  back  as  1886,  the  Congregational  Union 
of  England  and  Wales  discussed  the  question, 
"  whether,  without  injury  to  the  simplicity  and 
spirituality  of  the  public  worship  of  the  churches, 
any  new  methods  can  be  adopted  which  shall  ena- 
ble the  people  to  take  a  more  active  part  in  the 
services  than  at  present."  To-day  the  non-litur- 
gical churches  are  more  alive  than  they  have  been 
in  the  past  to  the  necessity  for  giving  the  con- 
gregation a  larger  share  in  the  public  worship  of 
God. 

Of  course  it  is  possible  to  meet  this  demand  for 
congregational  response  unfavora'bly.  it  may  be 
either  wholly  ignored  or  frowned  down  as  unworthy 
of  the  history  and  trSditions  of  the  free  churches. 
Those  who  take  this  position  aver  that  any  attempt 
to  shift  the  emphasis  in  worship  from  the  minister 
to  the  people  is  due  to  an  unworthy  disposition  to 
imitate  the  liturgical  communions.  They  further 
insist  that  it  indicates  a  decline  in  vital  religion. 
The  fervor,  they  say,  of  earlier  days  has  died  out, 
a  critical  spirit  has  grown  up,  which  has  been  en- 
couraged by  wider  culture  in  the  home  and  school, 
and  so  with  finer  churches,  more  expensive  organs 
and  choirs,  a  wealthier  membership,  and  a  closer 
union  with  the  world,  piety  has  declined.  Such 
considerations  as  these  are  deserving  of  careful  no- 
tice.    Undoubtedly   the    increase    in   wealth    and 


CONGREGATIONAL  RESPONSE  79 

worldly  position  is  not  favorable  to  spiritual  relig- 
ion. The  growth  of  worldliness  has  always  tended 
to  swell  the  ranks  of  the  churches  which  have  set 
a  higher  value  upon  position  than  upon  piety.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  those  who  argue  in  favor  of  con- 
gregational response  are  by  no  means  to  be  con- 
founded with  those  who  advocate  what  is  called 
enrichment  of  service.  Indeed,  the  one  of  these 
may  be  in  conflict  with  the  other.  An  anthem 
enriches  the  service,  but  if,  by  appealing  to  the 
aesthetic  faculty,  it  rouses  the  critical  spirit,  if,  that 
is,  it  invites  the  worshiper  to  listen  rather  than 
to  participate,  then  it  distinctly  dissipates  the  ele- 
ment of  congregational  response  and  breaks  the 
continuity  of  the  worship. 

I.  Let  it  be  granted  at  once,  therefore,  that  the 
craving  for  congregational  response  may  be  met  by 
a  resolute  and  yet  intelligent  maintenance  of  the 
Puritan  model.  Admitting  the  superior  stateliness 
and  dignity  of  the  liturgical  service,  we  may  well 
insist  that  the  real  object  of  worship  is  not  to  satisfy 
the  sense  of  beauty  in  those  who  take  part  in  it, 
but  to  hold  communion  with  God  and  learn  better 
how  to  do  his  will.  "  The  true  wisdom  of  those 
who  have  to  conduct  the  free  worship  of  Congre- 
gational churches,"  says  Dr.  R.  W.  Dale,  "is  to 
strive  for  the  kind  of  perfection  which  is  appropriate 
to  it."^  The  objection  that  in  extemporaneous 
prayer  the  congregation  is  too  dependent  on  the 
mind  and  mood  of  the  minister,  is  not  met  by  urging 

'  See  "  A  Manual  of  Congregational  Principles,"  by  R.  W.  Dale. 


8o  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

that  the  same  may  be  said  as  to  the  sermon.  But 
it  is  evident  that  the  minister  ought  to  be  made  to 
feel  that  during  the  whole  service  so  much  does 
depend  upon  the  minister  that  he  will  need  to  live 
under  a  most  solemn  and  weighty  sense  of  his  ob- 
ligation. If  the  service  is  to  retain  the  Puritan  sim- 
plicity it  must  retain  also  the  Puritan  fervor.  It 
need  not  pass  beyond  the  limits  dear  to  the  meet- 
ing-houses of  the  early  Noncomformists  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  early  colonists  of  New  England  ;  it 
may  confine  itself  to  singing  and  prayer,  and  the 
reading  of  the  Bible  and  the  sermon  ;  and  yet  it 
may  be  made  rich  and  full.  There  are  still  many 
churches  in  which  this  simplicity  is  maintained, 
where  at  the  same  time  it  is  easy  to  worship  the 
Lord  in  the  beauty  of  holiness  with  the  intelligent 
and  earnest  devotion  of  heart  and  voice. 

2.  The  desire  on  the  part  of  the  people  for  a 
larger  share  in  the  service  may  be  met  by  a  wise 
infusion  of  the  responsive  element. 

(i)  By  all  means  encourage  congregational  sing- 
ing. No  hymn  intended  for  the  people  should  be 
usurped  by  the  choir.  In  the  city  of  Geneva,  at 
the  time  he  so  largely  controlled  its  interests,  John 
Calvin,  fearing  for  the  fate  of  any  service  in  which 
the  congregation  having  nothing  to  do  would  be- 
come critical,  cultivated  congregational  singing. 
The  experience  of  subsequent  centuries  has  justi- 
fied his  foresight.  The  less  a  congregation  does, 
the  less  devout  it  is  apt  to  become.  It  is  tempted 
to  put  itself  outside  of  the  service  and  play  the  part 


CONGREGATIONAL   RESPONSE  8l 

of  the  connoisseur.  So  the  spirit  of  devout  com- 
munion dies  out  before  the  chill  breath  of  discern- 
ing criticism.  At  the  present  time  there  is  among 
us  a  wholesome  reaction  in  the  direction  of  the 
congregational  psalmody  which  gives  such  hearti- 
ness to  the  services  in  many  Lutheran  churches. 
"  The  simple  and  ancient  tunes  which  the  German 
people  sing  in  their  churches,"  to  quote  from  an 
intelligent  student  on  this  subject,  "  are  very  beau- 
tiful. There  is  an  increasing  tendency  in  the  best 
churches,  in  this  country  and  abroad,  toward  a 
style  of  church  music  that  is  nearer  the  wants  of 
the  people.  The  more  of  reality  in  the  service  of 
song,  the  less  need  to  multiply  tunes  and  to  give 
them  highly  artistic  character.  I  asked  a  cultiva- 
ted German,  who  had  spent  some  years  in  the 
United  States,  why  it  was  that  so  many  were  accus- 
tomed to  join  in  singing  in  the  German  churches. 
He  replied,  'It  is  because  we  use  the  old  hymns 
and  the  old  tunes.'  "  ' 

(2)  The  congregation  may  be  trained  to  the 
responsive  reading  of  the  Psalms.  Originally 
antiphonal,  we  take  one  step  toward  restoring  the 
Psalter  to  its  true  place  when  we  use  it  respon- 
sively.  1  say  one  step,  because  finality  is  by  no 
means  reached  when  this  is  done.  The  Psalms 
should  be  chanted,  and  the  congregation  should 
have  their  full  share  in  this  exercise. 

In  passing,  it  may  be  said  that  to  the  alternate 
reading  by  the  minister  and  the  congregation  of 

I  "  The  Christ  of  Yesterday,  To-day,  and  Forever,"  E.  H.  Byington,  p.  ijj. 

F 


82  PUBLIC   WORSHIP 

Other  parts  of  Scripture  than  the  Psalms,  there  are 
serious  objections.  The  responsive  reading  of  the 
Psalms  was  probably  at  first  a  compromise  made 
by  the  Reformed  Anglican  Church.  It  was  in- 
tended to  set  the  people  to  doing  what  in  the  older 
service  had  been  done  by  the  singers.  "  Respon- 
sive reading  in  the  Anglican  communion  was  a  mere 
expedient  of  necessity.  So  that  church  has  re- 
garded it,  and  has  sought  earnestly  and  persistingly 
to  remove  this  necessity,  and  in  England,  it  is  un- 
derstood, with  success.  So  that  to-day,  in  general, 
the  responsive  reading  of  the  Psalms  has  ceased, 
and  singing  has  been  restored  to  its  rightful  function 
in  this  part  of  worship."  *  But  the  other  parts  of 
the  Bible  were  not  intended  to  be  sung.  They  are 
to  be  read  by  one  voice,  so  as  not  to  break  up  the 
continuous  sense,  and  so  as  to  preserve  the  charac- 
ter of  this  part  of  the  service  as  impressive  rather 
than  expressive. 

(3)  The  recital  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  aloud  by 
the  minister  and  the  people  will  also  conduce  to 
congregational  response.  To  this  the  people  need 
to  be  trained.  Already  it  is  common  in  the  Sunday- 
school.  Let  it  be  used  in  the  week-evening  prayer 
meetings.  Request  the  deacons  and  those  who  are 
accustomed  to  speak,  to  lead  the  congregation  in 
clear  and  distinct  tones.  It  may  be  interesting  to 
note  that  in  the  "  Directory  for  the  Public  Worship 
of  God,"  issued  by  the  Westminster  Assembly  in 
1643,  and  intended  to  take  the  place  of  the  Episco- 

1  "New  Englander,"  January,  1882. 


CONGRKGATIONAL  RESPONSE  83 

pal  rubric,  "  no  stated  prayer  was  commended  ex- 
cept that  given  by  our  Lord."  In  early  New  Eng- 
land, however,  "  so  great  was  the  dislike  to  any- 
thing that  savored  of  the  bondage  of  the  Church  of 
England  that  even  the  Lord's  Prayer  was  seldom 
employed."  The  objection  in  this  instance  seems 
not  to  have  been  to  the  use  of  the  prayer  in  public 
worship,  save  as  it  was  associated  with  a  political 
tyranny  which  had  driven  them  and  their  fathers 
into  exile  ;  and  this  objection  happily  holds  no  longer. 
(4)  Certainly  it  would  be  well  to  restore  to  the 
people  the  use  of  the  congregational  amen.  That 
the  original  intention  was  for  all  the  people  to  say 
amen  is  evident  from  Scripture,'  it  has  been  con- 
jectured that  in  the  New  Testament  a  reference  to 
the  same  custom  among  the  early  believers  is  to  be 
found  in  the  words,  "  That  with  one  accord  ye 
may  with  one  mouth  glorify  the  God  and  Father 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  and  it  is  certain  that  in 
another  passage  the  apostle  alludes  to  it  as  custom- 
ary.* The  early  church  grafted  the  practice  into 
its  congregational  worship.  In  the  second  century 
Justin  Martyr  wrote  :  "  Then  we  all  rise  together 
and  pray,  and  when  our  prayer  is  ended,  bread  and 
wine  are  brought,  and  the  president  in  like  manner 
offers  prayer  and  thanksgiving,  according  to  his 
ability,  and  the  people  assent,  saying,  'Amen.'" 
In  our  own  times,  while  the  use  of  the  amen  has 
bee4i  more  characteristic  of  the  Methodist  congre- 
gations, it  is  certain  that  it  has  also  been  encour- 

'  Deut.  27  :  14,  15  ;  i  Chron.  16 :  36 ;  Ps.  106 :  48.    "  Rom.  15:6;  i  Cor.  14  :  16. 


84  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

aged  by  individual  Baptist  ciiurches.  In  the  records 
of  a  church  in  Yorksliire,  England,  in  the  year  1800, 
we  read  :  "  Desired  that  those  who  approve  of  the 
prayers  signify  their  approbation  by  an  audible 
'  Amen  '  ;  "  which  leads  us  to  say  that  this  re- 
sponse will  naturally  be  called  forth  by  prayer  which 
is  congregational.  Let  the  minister  be  careful  so 
to  pray  that  all  the  people  may  say  "  Amen." 

(5)  Congregational  response  of  the  truest  sort, 
that  is  to  say,  of  the  heart  and  mind,  will  be  pro- 
moted if  congregational  interest  is  maintained.  To 
tliis  end  encourage  a  more  general  use  of  Bibles 
among  the  people.  During  the  public  reading  of 
the  Scriptures  train  them  to  follow  you  from  their 
own  Bibles.  Accustom  them  to  look  up  the  text 
of  your  sermon  when  it  is  announced,  and  during 
the  discourse  to  follow  your  references  to  passages 
of  Scriptures  confirmatory  of  what  you  are  saying. 
Not  the  least  advantage  in  doing  this  will  be  that 
you  yourself  will  be  delivered  from  handling  the 
word  of  God  deceitfully,  from  taking  a  text  only  to 
leave  it,  and  so  exposing  yourself  to  the  same  con- 
demnation as  the  Scottish  preacher  of  whom  one  of 
his  hearers  complained  that  "  he  had  lost  his  ground 
an  hour  before,  and  had  been  just  swimming  ever 
since." 

V.  In  closing  our  consideration  of  a  subject  upon 
which  the  last  word  has  by  no  means  been  spoken 
yet,  it  may  be  well  to  glance  at  the  benefits  which 
will  follow  the  cultivation  of  the  responsive  ele- 
ment in  public  worship. 


CONGREGATIONAL  RESPONSE  85 

1.  The  whole  service  will  feel  its  influence,  and 
will  become  hearty,  continuous,  and  measurably 
complete. 

2.  The  sermon  will  also  be  the  better  for  it  if  it 
helps  to  cherish  more  of  that  sympathy  which 
should  exist  between  a  speaker  and  his  hearers. 
If  the  congregation  comes  to  the  sermon  in  a  de- 
vout, exalted  frame  of  feeling,  the  preaching  cannot 
be  what  it  is  when  the  exercises  preceding  the  ser- 
mon only  consume  so  much  time  and  power  of  at- 
tention.^ For  the  minister  himself,  the  responsive 
tones  of  the  people  will  do  much  to  remove  the 
sensation  of  isolation,  and  to  banish  the  nervous- 
ness due  to  a  feeling  that  he  is  not  one  of  the  peo- 
ple so  much  as  one  apart  from  them. 

3.  The  sound  of  many  voices  will  be  as  stimu- 
lating and  bracing  as  the  sound  of  many  waters. 
The  minister  will  himself  worship  with  his  people 
and  not  only  on  their  behalf.  As  it  is,  he  is  often 
startled  at  hearing  any  other  voice  than  his  own, 
and  the  amen  of  a  worshiper  more  devout  than  de- 
corous is  as  disturbing  to  him  as  was  the  response 
of  the  old  Duke  of  Cambridge  to  the  chaplain  who 
was  conducting  the  service  in  his  presence,  when 
in  answer  to  the  minister's  words,  "  Let  us  pray," 
he  replied  with  a  voice  stronger  than  his  mind, 
"  By  all  means," 

4.  By  such  changes  in  the  service  as  we  have 
suggested,  the  sane  and  wholesome  instinct  to  join 
in   audible    expression   will    be     largely   satisfied. 

1  "Andover  Review,"  Sept.,  1884,  p.  296. 


86  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

"We  need,"  as  Horace  Bushnell  says,  "to  keep 
fixed  times,  or  appointed  rounds  of  observances,  as 
truly  as  to  be  in  holy  impulses  ;  to  have  prescribed 
periods  of  duty  as  truly  as  to  have  a  spirit  of  duty  ; 
to  be  in  the  drill  of  observance  as  well  as  in  the 
liberty  of  faith."'  And  the  congregation  will  feel 
that  thrill  of  fellowship  without  which,  indeed, 
it  is  no  congregation,  but  only  an  accidental  as- 
semblage of  individuals.  Recalling  his  sensations 
when  Frederick  Denison  Maurice  conducted  divine 
worship,  Thomas  Hughes  expresses  what  many  of 
us  who  remember  Maurice  felt:  "The  way  in 
which  we  all  joined  in  the  responses  (irresistibly, 
I  suppose,  because  we  felt  it  was  a  privilege  which 
we  must  exercise)  gave  me  a  strong  feeling  of  fel- 
lowship which  1  have  rarely  felt  in  any  other  con- 
gregation." 

5.  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  this  fellowship 
must  be  of  great  service  to  the  cause  of  religion  at 
large.  Our  personal  enjoyment  of  the  life  that  is 
hid  with  Christ  in  God  is  very  much  influenced  by 
the  general  expression  of  religion  among  those  who 
are  about  us.  When  these  congregational  utter- 
ances express  the  united  testimonies  of  many  de- 
vout souls,  our  own  faith  will  be  quickened  and 
the  earthly  worship  in  wiiich  we  engage  will  be 
rich  and  full  in  the  very  elements  which  give  to  the 
elders  praising  the  Lamb  such  a  mighty  volume  of 
harmonious  testimony. 

'  Horace  Bushnell's  Sermons  :  "  Routine  Observances  Indispensable." 


V 

PUBLIC  PRAYER 


SUMMARY 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR  PUBLIC  PRAYER. 
A  careful  preparation  for  public  prayer  is  urged  : 

1.  From  the  importance  of  the  act  itself. 

2.  From  the  unsatisfactory  character  of  many  public  prayers. 

3.  From  the  effect  produced  when  public  prayer  is  what  it 

should  be. 

I.  Devotional  Preparation. 

1.  Personal  preparation. 

2.  Preparation  Godward. 

3.  Preparation  manward. 

Counsels. 

1.  Have  a  special  time  in  the  week  reserved  for  this  prepa- 

ration. 

2.  Have  within    easy   reach   books  which  will  help  your 

devotions. 

3.  Let  your  mind  be  free  from  the  routine  of  church  work. 

II.  INTELLECTUAL  PREPARATION. 

1.  In  the  language  to  be  used  :  (i)  Analyze  the  prayers  of 

the  Bible;  (2)  Study  models  of  prayer;  (3)  Form  a 
collection  of  materials  for  prayer;  (4)  Sometimes  it 
may  be  well  to  write  out  a  prayer. 

2.  In  the  subjects  to  be  touched  upon:  (i)  The  principal 

prayer  should  be  very  inclusive;   (2)  To  insure  this, 
foresight  will  be  needed;   (3)  Train   people  to  send 
notes,  to  make  notes  during  week. 
Note,    a  list  of  books  which  may  be  recommended. 


V  "^ 

PUBLIC  PRAYER 

Upon  no  parts  of  the  public  service  should  the 
minister  bestow  more  pains  than  upon  those  which 
are  distinctively  devotional.  A  careful  Preparation 
for  Congregational  Prayer  may  be  urged  for  the 
following  reasons  : 

I.  From  the  importance  of  the  act  itself.  The 
definition  of  prayer  in  the  Shorter  Catechism  is 
admirable:  "Prayer  is  an  offering  up  of  our  de- 
sires unto  God,  for  things  agreeable  to  his  will, 
in  the  name  of  Christ,  with  confession  of  our  sins, 
and  thankful  acknowledgment  of  his  mercies." 
To  Coleridge  the  act  of  praying  was  "the  very 
highest  energy  of  which  the  human  heart  was  capa- 
ble, praying,  that  is,  with  the  concentration  of  the 
faculties."  Emerson  touches  on  another  aspect  of 
the  prayer,  but  one  not  less  important,  when  he 
speaks  of  it  as  "  the  contemplation  of  the  facts  of 
life  from  the  highest  point  of  view."  Evidently  to 
pray  with  profit  and  power  is  by  no  means  easy. 
An  English  bishop  considered  that  no  man  was 
likely  to  do  much  good  in  prayer  who  did  not  begin 
by  looking  at  it  "in  the  light  of  a  work  to  be  pre- 
pared for  and  persevered  in  with  all  the  earnestness 
which  we  bring  to  bear  on  subjects  which  are,  in 


QO  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

our  opinion,  at  once  most  interesting  and  most 
necessary."  The  same  estimate  of  the  true  char- 
acter of  the  act  is  summed  up  in  fewer  words  by 
Chalmers  when  he  speaks  of  the  intense  business- 
like spirit  of  the  prayers  of  Philip  Doddridge.^ 

2.  Nor,  we  are  bound  to  add,  is  the  need  of  a 
careful  preparation  on  the  part  of  the  minister  less 
evident  if  he  considers  the  unsatisfactory  character 
of  very  much  public  prayer.  So  impressed  with 
this  was  one  of  the  ablest  pastors  of  the  past  gener- 
ation in  New  England  that  he  feared  that  "public 
prayer  was  fast  becoming  a  lost  art."'^  The  crav- 
ing for  a  liturgy  is  not  often  found  when  public  ex- 
temporaneous prayer  is  what  it  should  be,  but  only 
when  it  is  full  of  vain  repetition,  devoid  of  unction, 
unsympathetic,  inadequate  to  the  needs  of  the  con- 
gregation, and  lacking  in  reverence  and  dignity. 
These  are  the  blemishes  in  extemporaneous  prayer 
against  which  the  Westminster  Directory  of  Wor- 
ship as  long  ago  as  the  seventeenth  century  warned 
the  ministers  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  even  going 
so  far  as  to  recommend  that  manuals  be  studied  "that 
the  prayers  may  be  performed  with  dignity  and 
propriety,  as  well  as  to  the  profit  of  those  who  join 
in  them,  and  that  this  important  service  may  not  be 
disgraced  by  mean,  irregular,  or  extravagant  effu- 
sions." In  the  discussions  on  the  subject  at  the 
time  when  this  utterance  was  made,  it  was  clearly 
recognized  that  there  was  a  middle  way  betwixt 
set  forms  and  extemporaneous  prayers.     "I  plead 

1  Stanford,  "Doddridge,"  p.  175.  -  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon. 


PUBLIC   PRAYER  9I 

for  neither,"  said  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  debate, 
"but  for  studied  prayers."*  Dr.  Edward  Payson, 
whose  ministry  was  marked  by  such  rare  spiritual 
power,  found  reason  for  saying,  "  Our  devotional 
performances  are  too  often  cold  and  spiritless  ;  as 
the  heart  did  not  assist  in  composing,  it  disdains  to 
aid  in  attuning  them.  They  have  almost  as  much 
of  a  form  as  if  we  made  use  of  a  liturgy,  while 
the  peculiar  excellences  of  a  liturgy  are  wanting." 
Without  doubt  what  his  biographer  remarks  about 
William  George  Ward  is  true  of  many  other  wor- 
shipers :  "  A  public  prayer  which  did  not  appeal  to 
him  led  to  irritation  and  distraction."  ^  When  an 
outraged  and  outspoken  Western  man  went  swing- 
ing out  of  a  famous  Eastern  college  chapel  one  Sun- 
day morning,  exclaiming  "Great  Scott,  what  pray- 
ing," we  can  more  readily  forgive  his  bluntness  than 
the  petition  which  provoked  it,  and  which  ran  thus: 
"We  thank  thee  that  all  men  are  thy  children, 
and  that  when  we  love  men  we  love  thee,  when 
we  think  highly  of  human  powers  we  praise  thee  ; 
when  we  worship  human  genius  we  are  not  idola- 
ters as  our  fathers  thought."'  No  country  has 
more  resolutely  opposed  set  forms  of  prayer  than 
Scotland  ;  but  Dr.  A.  K.  H.  Boyd  urges,  with  reason, 
that  they  are  to  be  preferred  to  the  prayers  which 
are  purely  impromptu,  and  he  illustrates  his  conten- 
tion by  extracts  from  the  prayers  of  contemporary 

1  "The  Westminster  Assembly,"  A.  F.  Mitchell,  D.  D.,  p.  22g. 

-  "  Memoirs  of  the  Oxford  Movement,"  Wilfrid  Ward,  p.  93. 

3  "  Life  of  Dr.  S.  Wells  Williams,"  p.  480. 


92  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

ministers,  which  certainly  warrant  his  protest.  The 
proverbial  caution  of  his  countrymen  found  expres- 
sion in  one  instance  in  the  words  :  **  it  must  be  ac- 
knowledged that  hitherto  thy  people  have  been  in 
a  sad  minority,  but  we  look  on  to  the  day  when 
they  shall  be  in  an  overwhelming  majority"  ;  and 
patriotic  pride  dictafed  a  version  of  certain  words  of 
Jesus  which  were  neither  authorized  nor  revised, 
when  the  same  minister  said,  "For,  as  thou 
knowest,  men  do  not  gather  grapes  of  thorns,  nor 
figs  of  the  national  emblem." 

3.  But  when  public  extemporaneous  prayer  is 
what  it  should  be,  without  question  no  part  of  the 
service  is  more  profitable.  "  People  learn  more 
what  prayer  is  and  how  to  pray,"  said  Dr.  Kirk, 
"  in  hearing  one  real  prayer  than  by  all  the  sermons 
and  talks  they  ever  heard  or  will  hear,  and  all  the 
tracts  they  will  ever  read  on  the  subject."  ^  "  With- 
out any  straining  after  oratorical  effect,"  says  one 
of  his  occasional  hearers,  "  Dr.  Maclaren's  voice 
and  manner  at  once  arrested  attention  ;  the  stillness 
that  prevailed  seemed  a  matter  of  course.  The 
preliminary  prayers  were  so  fresh  and  thoughtful 
as  at  once  to  suggest  careful  preparation.  They 
had  the  ring  of  genuineness,  and  must  have  passed 
for  the  spiritual  currency  of  very  many  present." 
We  cease  to  marvel  at  the  power  in  prayer  of  John 
Knox  when  we  fmd  that  he  considered  it  to  be  "  an 
earnest  and  familiar  talking  with  God,"  and  the 
spiritual  influence  which  George  Fox  exerted  is  to 

1  "  Life  of  Dr.  Edward  Kirk,"  p.  328. 


PUBLIC  PRAYER  93 

a  large  part  explained  when  we  hear  William  Penn 
saying  of  him  :  "The  most  awful,  living,  reverent 
frame  1  ever  felt  or  beheld,  I  must  say,  was  his  in 
prayer.  And  truly  it  was  a  testimony  he  knew 
more  and  lived  nearer  to  the  Lord  than  other  men  : 
for  they  that  know  him  most  will  see  most  reason 
to  approach  him  with  reverence  and  fear."^  A 
lady  going  to  Dr.  Payson's  church  in  the  expecta- 
tion of  seeing  Lafayette,  was  lifted  far  above  curi- 
osity by  an  intercessory  prayer  which  "differed 
from  all  she  had  ever  heard,  in  richness  and  appropri- 
ateness of  matter  as  well  as  in  fervor  of  utterance," 
and  when  she  ventured  to  ask  Dr.  Payson  for  a 
copy  of  it,  she  was  surprised  to  learn  that  it  had 
vanished  with  the  breath  which  gave  it  utterance.^ 
In  the  same  way,  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  led  by 
some  unexpected  circumstance  to  hear  Edward 
hwing  just  after  he  settled  in  London,  was  arrested 
by  the  phrase,  "thrown  upon  the  fatherhood  of 
God,"  which  the  preacher  used  in  pleading  for  an 
unknown  family  of  orphans  belonging  to  the  obscure 
congregation.  He  repeated  the  words  to  Canning, 
the  first  statesman  of  his  time,  who  in  his  turn 
went  to  hear  Irving,  and  a  few  nights  after,  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  spoke  in  such  high  terms  of  his 
eloquence  that  the  rank  and  fashion  of  London 
flocked  to  listen  to  him.'  A  prayer  which  Irving's 
earlier  associate.    Dr.    Thomas  Chalmers,    offered 


'  "  George  Fox,"  by  Thomas  Hodgkin,  p.  275. 

2  Cumming's  "  Memoir  of  Payson,"  p.  240. 

2  Oliphant's  "  Life  of  Irving,"  p.  120. 


94  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

when  Edinburgh  was  threatened  with  cholera, 
brought  a  note  from  one  of  the  judges  of  the  Court 
of  Session,  begging  that  it  might  be  given  to  the 
press,  so  that  general  prejudice  against  the  means 
taken  to  avert  the  scourge  might  be  allayed  "by 
the  solemn  appeal  to  Almighty  God  put  by  one  so 
justly  entitled  to  public  confidence  and  respect.'" 
In  his  prayers  it  was  said  of  Robert  Murray  Mc- 
Cheyne  that  "he  held  such  reverential  and  endear- 
ing communion  with  God, — he  pressed  so  near  the 
throne,  there  was  something  so  filial  in  his  '  Abba 
Father,'  so  express  and  urgent  and  hopeful  were 
his  supplications, — that  it  was  awakening  to  hear 
him  pray."  Of  McCheyne's  friend  and  fellow- 
laborer,  William  C.  Burns,  his  biographer  remarks  : 
"  During  the  first  prayer  you  felt  as  if  the  light  of 
the  other  world  struck  his  face."  Using  though  he 
did  a  liturgy,  Frederick  Denison  Maurice  was  mani- 
festly conscious  that  he  was  leading  the  prayers  of 
the  special  congregation  then  present,  while  at  the 
same  time  "  his  whole  manner  and  voice  showed 
that  he  was  completely  absorbed  in  the  actual  com- 
munion of  thought  with  the  unseen."  Robertson  of 
Irvine  was  but  a  stripling  when  he  succeeded  to  a 
venerable  pastor:  "When  I  saw  him  mount  the 
pulpit  stairs,"  said  one  of  his  hearers,  "1  felt  indig- 
nant that  one  so  young  should  presume  to  teach  a 
church,  but  when  I  heard  his  prayer,  I  felt  that  the 
most  aged  might  sit  at  his  feet."'     President  Way- 

1  Manila's  "Life  of  Chalmers,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  250. 
-  Guthrie's  "  Robertson  of  Irvine,"  p.  56. 


PUBLIC  PRAYER  95 

land,  spending  a  Sunday  in  Liverpool  and  attending 
the  service  at  Dr.  Raffles'  church,  wrote:  "In 
prayer  Dr.  Rattles  was  delightful  ;  devotional,  calm, 
earnest,  but  solemn,  particular,  but  not  familiar. 
It  raised  the  souls  of  the  people  to  God,  and  kept 
them  near  the  throne."  An  old  woman  who  was 
a  member  of  Dr.  Dale's  church,  at  Birmingham, 
v/hile  she  confessed  that  she  could  not  understand 
his  sermons,  added,  "  But  his  prayers  do  me  so 
much  good  that  I  always  come."'  This  was  the 
testimony  of  one  who  had  worshiped  at  that  church 
until  use  had  become  a  second  nature  ;  but  how  the 
casual  hearer  also  may  be  affected  is  illustrated  by 
the  fact  that  Dr.  C.  L.  Goodell,  of  St.  Louis,  who 
excelled  in  congregational  prayer,  once  received  at 
the  close  of  a  morning  service  the  following  note, 
written  in  pencil  on  the  back  of  a  telegram  blank, 
and  sent  by  the  hand  of  one  of  the  ushers  :  "  God 
bless  you  for  your  prayer  for  the  strangers  present. 
Three  of  us,  and  many  miles  from  home,  God 
bless  us  all.  Excuse  the  pencil  and  paper.  Signed, 
An  Operator."^ 

Enough  has  been  said  in  urging  the  great  im- 
portance of  careful  preparation  on  the  part  of  the 
minister  before  engaging  in  public  prayer.  This 
preparation  should  be  both  devotional  and  intellec- 
tual. 

1.  There  should  be  Devotional  Preparation  for 
public  prayer. 

I.   Your  first  duty  will    be  to  make    your    own 

1  "  Life  of  Dr.  Dale,"  p.  644.        -"  Life  of  C.  L.  Goodell,  D.  D.,  p.  374. 


96  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

heart  ready  by  private  communion  witli  God.  This 
personal  preparation  is  indeed  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance. With  King  David  you  must  go  in  and 
sit  before  the  Lord.'  With  Daniel  the  prophet  be- 
fore the  Lord  you  must  pray  and  confess  your  sins, 
and  present  your  supplications.^  Spurgeon  com- 
mends the  preparation  of  the  heart,  the  solemn  con- 
sideration beforehand  of  the  importance  of  prayer, 
meditation  upon  the  needs  of  men's  souls,  and  a 
remembrance  of  the  promises  which  we  are  to 
plead. ^  Even  more  than  the  sermon,  Dr.  W.  M. 
Taylor  thinks  that  "the  prayer  requires  prepara- 
tion. It  needs  the  culture  of  the  heart.  The  de- 
votion of  the  pulpit  must  have  its  roots  back  in  the 
closet.  The  habits  of  the  life  will  fill  a  reservoir 
from  which  the  exercises  of  the  sanctuary  will  be 
easily  supplied."  * 

2.  This  personal  preparation  will  also  give  you 
preparation  Godward.  To  utter  the  resolve,  "  I 
will  sing,  yea,  I  will  sing  praises  even  with  my 
glory,"  Ms  to  have  already  gathered  up  all  your 
powers  in  the  glad  declaration,  "  My  heart  is  fixed, 
O  God,  my  heart  is  fixed." 

3.  From  this  point  you  can  survey  the  whole 
world,  lying  in  the  light  of  God's  purposes.  Do 
not  be  satisfied  with  your  preparation  until  you  find 
yourself  in  full  accord  with  his  will.  Charge  your 
soul  "with  the  most  exalted  conception  of  a  con- 


1  2  Sam.  7  :  18.  2  Dan.  9  :  20. 

3  Spurgeon,  "  Lectures  to  My  Students,"  I.,  IV. 
*  Taylor,  "  Yale  Lectures,"  p.  241.  &  Ps.  loS 


PUBLIC  PRAYER  97 

gregation  of  people,  filled  with  the  vision  of  God's 
glory  ;  each  heart  overawed,  elevated,  enraptured 
with  the  sight,  like  Abraham  and  Moses  speaking 
with  the  Eternal,  face  to  face."'  This  three- 
fold preparation — selfward,  Godward,  manward — 
should  be  your  first  and  chief  occupation  in  the  an- 
ticipation of  leading  the  people  in  public  prayer.  It 
is  almost  impossible  to  insist  too  strenuously  on 
this  preparation  of  the  heart,  or  to  exaggerate  its 
value,  in  his  quaint  way,  John  Trapp,  the  com- 
mentator, puts  the  matter  with  refreshing  clearness 
when  he  says  :  "  God  respecteth  not  the  arithme- 
tic of  our  prayers,  how  many  they  are  ;  nor  the 
rlietoric  of  our  prayers,  how  neat  they  are  ;  nor  the 
geometry  of  our  prayers,  how  long  they  are  ;  nor 
the  music  of  our  prayers,  how  melodious  they  are  ; 
nor  the  logic  of  our  prayers,  how  methodical  they 
are  ;  but  the  divinity  of  our  prayers,  how  heart- 
sprung  they  are.  Not  gifts,  but  graces  prevail  in 
prayer." 

There  is  force  as  well  as  beauty  in  Payson's 
thoughts  upon  the  same  subject  :  "  That  public 
prayer  may  produce  its  proper  and  designed  effects 
upon  the  hearts  of  our  hearers,  it  should  be,  if  I 
may  so  express  it,  a  kind  of  devout  poetry.  As 
in  poetry,  so  in  prayer,  the  whole  subject-matter 
should  be  furnished  by  the  heart ;  and  the  under- 
standing should  be  allowed  only  to  shape  and  ar- 
range the  effusions  of  the  heart  in  the  manner  best 
adapted  to  answer  the  end  designed."  ^ 

1  "  Memoir,"  p.  246.  *  "  Dr.  Kirk's  Life,"  p.  329. 

G 


98  PUBLIC   WORSHIP 

COUNSELS. 

1.  We  counsel,  therefore,  that  you  reserve  a 
special  time  in  the  week  for  the  preparation.  Let 
your  Sabbath  begin  with  the  sunset  on  Saturday, 
and  keep  the  hours  of  that  evening  sacred  from 
social  or  even  public  engagements, 

2.  It  may  be  well  to  have  near  at  hand  books 
which  will  help  your  devotions.  Catch  the  glow 
of  Samuel  Rutherford  from  his  matchless  "  Letters," 
and  the  fire  of  Richard  Baxter  from  his  "  Reformed 
Pastor."  Bring  yourself  anew  under  the  spell  of 
that  classic  in  the  literature  of  prayer,  "  The  Still 
Hour,"  of  Professor  Austin  Phelps,  Let  the  devout 
thoughts  of  A,  J.  Gordon,  or  F.  B,  Meyer,  or  An- 
drew Murray,  stimulate  or  soothe  your  heart, 

3.  This  season  of  preparation,  on  the  eve  of  the 
Sunday's  work,  must  find  you  with  a  heart  at  lei- 
sure from  itself.  You  must  have  the  sermons 
ready,  all  the  arrangements  for  the  services  com- 
pleted. The  routine  of  church  work  must  not  in- 
trude here,  nor  the  shadow  of  any  needed  mental 
discipline  be  suffered  to  fall  across  your  spirit. 

IL  This  is  not  to  say  that  the  quiet  hour  on  Sat- 
urday evening  may  not  in  part  be  given  to  Intel- 
lectual Preparation  for  public  prayer.  It  may. 
Now  is  the  time  to  tune  the  lips  as  well  as  to  in- 
spire the  heart.  Your  intellectual  preparation 
should  be  to  the  full  as  conscientious  for  the  prayer 
as  for  the  sermon. 


PUBLIC  PRAYER  99 

I.  First,  let  us  observe  that  there  should  be  prep- 
aration in  the  Language  to  be  used, 

(i)  To  this  end  it  is  wise  to  make  a  collection  of 
the  prayers  of  the  Bible.  Arrange  them  in  order 
in  a  note  book.  Begin  with  the  prayers  of  the  Old 
Testament.  Abraham,  Moses  and  Jabez,  David 
and  Solomon,  Jehoshaphat  and  Hezekiah,  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah,  with  the  prophets  Isaiah,  Daniel,  Jonah, 
and  HabakkuR. 

Then  study  the  prayers  of  Jesus,  Let  them 
fall  under  the  three  natural  divisions  of  those  that 
have  special  reference  to  himself,  those  that  he 
offered  for  believers,  and  the  Lord's  Prayer,  In 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  if  carefully  analyzed,  you  will 
find  in  germ  almost  all  the  material  for  your  con- 
gregational prayer.  Some  one  has  said,  "  It  em- 
bodies a  catholic  spirit  in  its  'Our  Father,'  a  rev- 
erential spirit  in  its  'Hallowed  be  thy  name,' an 
obedient  spirit  in  its  '  Thy  will  be  done,'  a  depend- 
ent spirit  in  its  '  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread,' 
a  penitent  and  forgiving  spirit  in  its  '  Lead  us  not 
into  temptation,'  and  an  adoring  spirit  in  its  '  Thine 
is  the  kingdom,  and  the  power,  and  the  glory,'  "  ^ 

Go  on  to  gather  together  for  the  same  purpose 
the  other  prayers  of  the  New  Testament  ;  the 
prayers  offered  by  the  early  church  as  found  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  the  prayers  of  Paul, 

Then  complete  your  collection  by  adding  the 
large  number  of  benedictions  which  are  to  be  found 
in  the  Old  and  New  Testament, 


1  See  Baldwin,  "Forty-one  Years'  Pastorate,"  p.  212. 


100  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

(2)  Later  models  will  also  be  of  assistance. 
There  is  a  stately  and  majestic  movement  in  the 
Collects  of  the  Episcopal  Prayer-book.  Theodore 
Parker  has  left  prayers  which,  if  too  florid,  are  rare- 
ly out  of  tune  with  the  natural  world,  George 
Dawson,  of  Birmingham,  England,  used  language 
which  he  carefully  selected  by  a  study  of  the  great 
writers  of  the  golden  age  in  English  literature.  For 
their  entire  absence  of  any  rhetorical  artifices  the 
prayers  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher  are  worthy  of 
study,  and  much  can  be  learned  from  the  direct 
and  vigorous  language  of  C.  H.  Spurgeon. 

(3)  It  will  be  well  to  have  a  manuscript  book 
into  which  you  can  paste  selections  from  these 
and  other  prayers,  so  as  to  be  able  to  use  them 
in  your  preparation  for  public  worship  ;  the  foun- 
dation of  the  collection  being  laid  in  the  prayers  of 
the  Bible  already  enumerated. 

(4)  There  may  even  be  times  when  to  write  out 
a  prayer  will  be  a  profitable  exercise.  Certainly 
phrases,  sentences,  and  special  words  for  special 
occasions  may  need  to  be  composed  beforehand.^ 
The  prayer  thus  studied  will  not  be  read  in  public, 
but  the  drill  and  discipline  of  writing  it  will  influence 
the  minister  when  he  leads  the  devotions  of  the 
people.  We  need  not  differ  with  Mr.  Spurgeon 
when  he  declares  that  "  ready-made  prayers  always 
seem  very  much  like  ready-made  clothes,  which 
being  meant  to  fit  everybody  very  seldom  fit  any- 


1  G.  A.  Smith,  D.  D.,  "  Life  of  Henry  Drummond,"  p.  56.      "  Life  of  C.  L. 
Goodell,  D.  D.,"  pp.  189,  IQ4. 


PUBLIC   PRAYER  lOI 

body,"  but  on  the  other  hand  we  do  well  to  re- 
member that  Dr.  Chalmers  prepared,  wrote  out, 
and  even  read  the  brief  prayer  which  preceded  his 
lectures  when  he  was  a  university  professor.  "  It 
does  not  follow,"  says  Dr.  McCrie,  among  the  most 
intelligent  and  uncompromising  defenders  of  non- 
liturgical  worship  in  later  times,  "from  our  not 
praying  by  a  set  form  that  we  must  pray  extem- 
pore."^ To  write  out  their  prayers,  "was  the 
practice  of  some  of  the  most  godly  ministers  the 
Church  of  Scotland  has  ever  had,  who,  though 
gifted  with  readiness  of  utterance  and  facility  of 
devotional  expressions,  and  satisfied  if  in  their 
more  private  ministrations  they  could  arrange  their 
thoughts  and  prepare  their  hearts,  yet  in  the  stated 
services  of  the  sanctuary  made  conscience  of  writing 
down  beforehand  the  substance  of  their  prayers  as 
well  as  their  sermons,  though  they  were  no  more 
in  the  habit  of  reading  the  latter  than  the  former."  ^ 
Probably  we  should  be  disposed  to  agree  with 
Dr.  S.  M.  Hopkins  when  he  says  :  "  The  conclusion 
reached  by  eminent  members  of  both  liturgical  and 
non-liturgical  churches  is  that  a  system  that  should 
unite  the  propriety  and  dignity  of  venerable  form 
with  the  flexibility  and  adaptation  to  occasions  of 
free  prayer  would  be  superior  to  any  existing 
method."^  And  certainly  the  wise  words  of  the 
author  of  "  The  Tongues  of  Fire  "  should  put  us  on 
our  guard  against  forming  any  hasty  judgment  on 


'  Mitchell,  "The  Westminster  Assembly,"  p.  230. 
'  Ibid.,  pp.  230,  231.  3  See  "  Kern,  "  p.  31. 


102  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

this  subject,  "  He  who  never  uses  a  form  in  public 
prayer,  casts  away  the  wisdom  of  the  past.  He 
who  will  use  only  forms  casts  away  the  hope  of  utter- 
ance to  be  given  by  the  Spirit  at  present,  and  even 
shuts  up  the  future  in  the  stiff  hand  of  the  past. 
Whatever  church  forbids  a  Christian  congregation, 
no  matter  what  may  be  their  fears,  troubles,  joys, 
or  special  and  pressing  need,  ever  to  send  up  prayer 
to  God  except  in  words  framed  by  other  men  in 
other  ages,  uses  an  authority  which  was  never 
delegated.  To  object  to  all  forms  is  narrowness. 
To  doom  a  Christian  temple  to  be  a  place  wherein 
a  simple  and  impromptu  cry  may  never  arise  to 
heaven,  is  superstition."' 

2.  We  may  further  observe  that  there  should  be 
preparation  in  the  Subjects   to   be  touched  upon. 

(i)  The  principal  prayer  in  the  morning  service 
should  be  very  inclusive,  and  in  order  to  insure  this 
and  at  the  same  time  to  avoid  prolixity,  careful 
preparation  is  necessary.  An  American  writer  says 
of  Mr.  Spurgeon's  prayer :  "  He  will  rivet  the  at- 
tention and  catch  the  ear  of  his  hearers  by  speak- 
ing of  that  which  has  been  uppermost  in  their 
minds  during  the  week,  and  then  lead  them  to  those 
which  ought  to  be  of  all  importance  to  them  while 
engaged  in  the  service  of  the  sanctuary,  Spurgeon 
prays  as  if  he  were  in  the  presence  of  Him  whom  he 
addresses,  and  the  hearers  melt  into  silence,  for 
they  feel  that  the  Ruler  of  the  universe  must  be 
present,  and  that  the  place  is  indeed  holy.     When 

1  Arthur,  "  Tongues  of  Fire,  "  p.  21. 


PUBLIC  PRAYER  103 

he  prays  for  London,  It  seems  as  if  the  portals  of 
his  soul  were  all  thrown  open,  and  every  power 
were  brought  into  living  fellowship  with  the  mighty 
Spirit  of  God,  and  that  he  is  making  that  soul  every 
moment  mightier  in  its  apprehension  of  God.  Mr. 
Spurgeon  evidently  studies  his  prayers, as  to  subject- 
matter,  before  coming  to  the  service,  and  then  they 
are  delivered  with  the  greatest  freedom  of  expres- 
sion." 

(2)  To  secure  inclusiveness  in  this  prayer  some 
foresight  is  needed.  It  will  be  well  that  you  train 
the  people  to  send  you  notes  during  the  week  speci- 
fying the  things  which  they  wish  mentioned  by  you 
in  public  prayer.  Sickness,  recovery,  bereave- 
ment, new  experiences  in  life,  these,  and  many 
similar  incidents  in  the  daily  course  of  members  of 
your  congregation  should  be  remembered  at  this 
time.  Cotton  Mather  took  "  the  bills  that  were  put 
up  for  prayer  "  to  his  study  and  prayed  for  each 
person  separately.  The  Episcopal  prayers  include 
special  petitions  for  members  of  the  congregation 
and  their  friends.  Within  the  m^emory  of  many  of 
us  such  personal  requests  were  sent  up  to  the 
minister  before  the  morning  prayer,  to  be  included 
in  his  supplications.  A  custom  so  worthy  of  pres- 
ervation ought  not  to  have  fallen  into  disuse.  The 
pastor's  letter  box,  in  the  vestibule  of  the  church, 
may  be  of  good  service  in  receiving  these  special 
requests  for  prayer. 

3.  In  addition  to  this,  we  counsel  that  during  the 
week  you  note  down  matters  which  you  should  re- 


104  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

member  in  prayer,  such  as  will  be  furnished  by 
your  pastoral  calls,  by  the  daily  newspapers,  and 
by  the  life  of  the  community  in  which  you  are  set- 
tled. A  sheet  of  paper  lying  on  your  study  table 
may  be  used  on  which  to  make  these  occasional 
memoranda,  and  on  Saturday  evening  or  Sunday 
morning,  you  will  find  that  it  will  be  an  easy  matter 
to  divide  up  and  classify  your  material.  The  retro- 
spect of  the  week  will  enable  you  to  pray  with  point 
as  well  as  power  for  things  which  are  personal  in 
the  life  of  the  home,  or  of  interest  in  the  life  of  the 
church,  or  momentous  in  the  life  of  the  nation. 

We  would  further  recommend  that  you  study 
such  aids  to  public  prayer  as  are  furnished  by  the 
literature  of  the  subject,  hivaluable  hints  may  be 
found  in  Mr.  Spurgeon's  "Lectures  to  my  Students," 
and  among  other  books  on  prayer  to  be  recom- 
mended are  the  following  :  "  Thoughts  on  Prayer," 
by  W.  E.  Winks,  London,  Religious  Tract  Society; 
Beecher's  "Aids  to  Prayer";  "Aids  to  Public 
Prayer,"  by  Ambrose  D.  Spong  ;  while  from  the 
prayers  of  Jeremy  Taylor,  "  Holy  Living  and  Dy- 
ing," Matthew  Henry,  "Method  of  Prayer," 
George  Dawson,  H.  W.  Beecher,  C.  H.  Spurgeon, 
"  The  Pastor  in  Prayer,"  and  Dr.  Joseph  Parker, 
you  may  gain  both  guidance  and  stimulus  for  your 
own  public  ministrations. 

Writing  to  a  brother  minister,  when  he  himself 
was  laid  aside  from  active  work.  Dr.  R.  W.  Dale 
commends  a  "  Manual  of  Intercessory  Prayer,"  by  a 
High    Churchman  ;  and  his   sturdy    Protestantism 


PUBLIC   PRAYER  105 

does  not  prevent  his  saying  :  "  I  have  found  it  help- 
ful for  devotional  purposes  in  solitary  prayer,  very 
helpful.  But  it  may  also  be  of  use  in  suggesting 
topics  for  prayer  in  public,  a  matter  in  which  I  think, 
nay,  I  am  sure,  that  I  was  wretchedly  at  fault  when 
I  was  young,  and  am  not  much  better  now  that  I  am 
old.  The  High  Churchmen,  with  the  use  they 
make  of  the  liturgical  and  devotional  literature  of 
many  centuries,  have  much  to  teach  us."  In 
prayer,  as  in  psalmody,  the  various  members  of  the 
church  of  Christ  have  in  all  the  ages  come  nearer 
to  one  another  than  they  have  in  their  Confessions 
of  Faith  or  their  sermons. 


VI 
PUBLIC  PRAYER  (CONTINUED) 


SUMMARY 


PRELIMINARY  SUGGESTIONS. 

1.  As  to  posture. 

2.  As  to  voice. 

3.  As  to  language. 

Guard  against:  (i)  Florid  language;  (2)  The  language 

oftompliment  and  flattery  ;  (3)  Conventional  phrases  ; 

(4)  Inaccurate  quotations  from  Scripture;  (5)  Inelegant 
-     expressions;  (6)  Tiresome  repetition  of  the  same  form 

of   address ;   (7)   Over-familiarity ;    (8)   Tendency  to 

preach. 
CHARACTERISTICS  OF  PUBLIC  PRAYER. 

1.  Solemnity:  (i)  Do  not  be  hurried;  (2)  Avoid  all  per- 

sonalities. 

2.  Sympathy :   ( i )  With  the  purposes  and  dealings  of 

God.     (2)  With  the  congregation. 

3.  Devout  confidence, 

4.  Directness. 

Avoid:  (i)  Being  too  general ;  (2)  Being  too  minute. 


VI 

PUBLIC   PRAYER   (CONTINUED) 

I.  At  this  point  it  may  be  well  to  make  some 
suggestions  as  to  the  minister's  demeanor  in  con- 
ducting the  devotions  of  the  congregation,  and  as 
to  the  language  to  be  employed. 

I.  The  first  thing  to  be  considered  is  posture. 
During  public  prayer  it  seems  best  that  the  minis- 
ter stand.  There  is  no  question  of  reverence  in- 
volved, for  almost  every  attitude  can  appeal  to 
historical  precedent.  Kneeling,  which  may  seem 
the  most  devout  posture,  is  open  to  the  objections 
that  it  is  tiring  to  the  body,  hurtful  to  the  lungs, 
exhausting  to  the  voice,  and  of  all  attitudes  the 
worst  for  sending  out  articulate  sound  clearly.  Al- 
though our  congregations  no  longer  stand,  yet  this 
was  the  ancient  mode,  and  it  lingered  down  to  this 
century.  "  Daniel  Webster,"  says  his  biographer, 
"stood  up  with  the  minister  and  congregation, 
after  the  manner  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  with  great 
devoutness  of  manner."  In  Scotland  it  probably 
remains  to  this  day  the  correct  posture  in  prayer 
with  many  congregations. 

Formerly  the  minister  kept  his  eyes  open,  and 
an  early  writer  on  the  subject  counsels  that  they 
be  fastened  on  the  clock  in  the  front  of  the  gallery, 

109 


no  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

SO  that  the  prayer  should  not  be  made  too  long. 
On  his  first  coming  to  London,  Mr.  Spurgeon  prayed 
thus,  and  the  letter  apprising  him  of  the  vote  of  the 
meeting  which  called  him  to  supply  the  New  Park 
Street  pulpit,  with  a  view  to  a  permanent  settle- 
ment there,  tells  him  that  five  hands  were  held  up 
in  the  negative  :  "  They  object  to  you  on  the 
ground  that  they  consider  you  do  not  use  sufficient 
reverence  in  prayer."^  \n  rising  to  pray,  clasp  the 
hands  over  the  Bible,  and  by  all  means  avoid  ges- 
ticulation. The  habit  of  lifting  them  with  an  up- 
ward sweeping  gesture  as  a  summons  to  the  people 
to  unite  in  prayer  is  in  part  a  relic  of  priestly  as- 
sumption, and  in  part  a  piece  of  childish  dictation. 
Rise  with  deliberation,  and  say,  simply,  "  Let  us 
pray." 

2.  This  suggests  the  further  counsel  that  you 
pitch  your  voice  low  rather  than  high.  At  first 
speak  slower  than  your  usual  preaching  rate.  Ar- 
ticulate very  clearly.  "  He  who  cannot  properly 
pronounce  the  vowels,"  says  the  Persian  Sh^hr, — a 
book  of  directions  for  the  right  conduct  of  life, — 
"  shall  not  lead  prayers."  Let  there  be  no  violent 
variations  in  your  tone.  The  roar  is  scarcely 
more  objectionable  than  the  whisper.  Do  not  be 
rhetorical,  or  elocutionary,  in  your  voice. 

3.  Of  still  greater  importance  is  the  question  of 
the  language  to  be  used  in  public  prayer.  The  ju- 
dicious study  of  models  to  which  reference  has 
been  made  in  the  previous  chapters,  may  prepare 

1  "Autobiography,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  347. 


PUBLIC  PRAYER  III 

you  for  the  follovving  suggestions.  Use  words 
which  are  well  established  in  our  language.  Adopt 
the  Horatian  principle,  and  strike  a  happy  mean 
between  these  which  are  fading  out  of  use  and 
those  which  have  not  yet  obtained  an  accredited 
foothold  among  us.  George  Dawson,  whose  prayers 
are  perfect  in  the  simplicity  and  beauty  of  their 
form,  told  Dr.  Dale  that  "  he  thought  no  word 
should  be  used  in  prayer  that  had  come  into  the 
language  since  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth."  ^  This 
is  an  extreme  view,  but  it  errs  in  the  right  direction. 
Employ  very  largely  Scripture  phraseology,  for  it 
is  dear  to  the  heart  of  Christian  people.  "Why," 
exclaims  Edward  h'ving,  "  do  not  men  talk  of  spirit- 
ual matters  as  much  like  the  Scriptures  as  they 
can,  and  especially  address  God  in  their  holy 
language  ?"  Let  the  sentences  be  short  rather  than 
long,  simple  rather  than  complex.  Avoid  the  style 
which  the  old  lady  who  listened  to  his  prayers, 
characterized  as  "  John  Forster's  stand-up  essays." 
hi  a  word,  be  simple.  The  minister  who  desired 
to  air  his  Latin  certainly  chose  the  wrong  time  in 
which  to  do  it  when  he  began  his  prayer,  "  O  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  thou  art  the  ne  plus  tiltra  of  our  de- 
sires, the  sine  qua  non  of  our  faith,  and  the  Ultima 
Tiiule  of  our  hopes."  ^  This  was  to  violate  the  first 
canon  of  good  style,  as  well  as  to  offend  against 
other  things  of  still  greater  moment.  At  all  events 
speak,  as  Walter  Bagehot  advises  you  to  write, 
"  like  a  human  being." 

1  Dale,  "Yale  Lectures,"  p.  173.  '  S.  H.  Cox,  D.  D. 


112  PUBLIC   WORSHIP 

(i)  Avoid,  then,  florid  language.  "  1  do  not  ap- 
prove," said  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  "  of  figurative 
expressions  in  addressing  the  Supreme  Being  ;  and 
I  never  use  them."  The  caution  which  is  implied 
here  is  not  unnecessary,  and  especially  will  the 
young  preacher  do  well  to  heed  it.  With  an  old 
Scottish  minister  speaking  to  his  grandson  who 
was  preparing  for  the  same  vocation,  we  may  say, 
"  Oh,  preserve  simplicity  in  prayer.  God  does  not 
need  to  be  told  that  he  made  the  constellations." 
We  understand  with  what  good  reason  the  news- 
papers on  one  occasion  credited  Theodore  Parker 
with  uttering  "the  finest  prayer  ever  addressed  to 
a  Boston  audience,"  when  we  hear  him  say  :  "  We 
thank  thee  for  the  new  life  which  comes  tingling  in 
the  boughs  of  every  great  or  little  tree,  which  is  green 
in  the  new-ascended  grass,  and  transfigures  itself 
in  the  flowers  to  greater  brightness  than  Solomon 
ever  put  on.  We  thank  thee  for  the  seed  which 
the  farmer  has  cradled  in  the  ground,  or  which 
thence  lifts  up  its  happy  face  of  multitudinous  proph- 
ecy, telling  us  of  harvests  that  are  to  come.  We 
thank  thee  also  for  the  garment  of  prophecy  with 
which  thou  girdest  the  forests  and  adornest  every 
tree  all  around  our  northern  lands.  We  bless  thee 
for  the  fresh  life  which  teems  in  the  waters  that 
are  about  us  and  in  the  little  brooks  which  run 
among  the  hills,  which  warbles  in  the  branches  of 
the  trees  and  hums  with  new-born  insects  through- 
out the  peopled  land."  This  is  rhapsody  ;  but  is  it 
prayer  ?     And  yet  the  dictum  of  Dr.  Johnson  seems 


PUBLIC  PRAYER  I^ 

to  be  too  severe  when  we  join  in  a  prayer  of  Mr. 
Spurgeon's  in  wliich  figurative  language  is  used 
with  rare  beauty  :  "  Come  in,  O  strong  and  deep 
love  of  Jesus,  like  the  sea  at  flood-tide  ;  cover  all 
my  powers,  drown  all  my  sins,  sweep  away  all 
my  cares,  lift  up  my  earth-bound  soul  and  float  it 
right  up  to  my  Lord's  feet,  and  there  let  it  lie,  a  poor 
broken  shell  washed  up  by  his  love,  having  no  vir- 
tue or  value,  and  only  venturing  to  whisper  to  him 
that  if  he  will  put  his  ear  to  me  he  will  hear  within 
faint  echoes  of  the  vast  waves  of  his  own  love, 
which  have  brought  me  where  it  is  my  delight  to 
lie,  even  at  his  feet  forever." 

(2)  Preserve  yourself  from  using  any  phraseology 
in  prayer  which  savors  of  compliment  and  flattery. 
You  may  be  occupying  the  place  of  a  brother  min- 
ister. Do  not  indirectly  congratulate  him  on  his 
achievements,  or  his  people  on  their  activity  and 
usefulness.  We  are  all  in  the  presence  of  God, 
and  the  time  is  far  distant  in  which  any  minister  or 
any  church  can  afford  to  do  other  than  be  very 
humble  and  self-abasing  there.  Even  had  we  done 
all  the  things  that  are  commanded  us,  our  fittest 
language  would  still  be  that  which  our  Lord  taught 
us  to  use:  "We  are  unprofitable  servants;  we 
have  done  that  which  it  was  our  duty  to  do."  ^ 

(3)  Even  more  than  in  preaching,  there  is  a  ten- 
dency in  prayer  to  fall  into  the  habit  of  using  con- 
ventional phrases.  Although  they  may  not  in  every 
instance  be  so  unmeaning  as  the  prayer  of  a  New 

1  Luke  17  :  10. 
H 


114  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

Jersey  minister  one  very  hot  day  in  July,  for  those 
who,  "  instead  of  joining  in  the  worship  were  sitting 
at  their  own  firesides,"  yet,  in  any  case,  they  should 
be  repressed.  "The  ecclesiastical  phraseology  of 
the  pulpit  is  to  be  avoided,  and  especially  in  prayer."  * 
Equally,  set  phrases,  the  stock  in  trade  of  dullness, 
should  be  conspicuous  only  by  their  absence : 
"Each  and  every  one,"  "fit  and  prepare  us," 
"guide  and  direct  us,"  "a  realizing  sense,"  "the 
act  and  article  of  death  " — these  are  phrases  out  of 
which  any  meaning  which  they  once  may  have 
possessed  has  faded  by  reason  of  constant  use  and 
abuse. 

(4)  Still  more  objectionable  are  inaccurate  quota- 
tions from  the  Bible,  such  as  "  Where  two  or  three 
are  met  together  in  thy  name,  there  art  thou  in  their 
midst,  and  that  to  bless,"  and  "  The  valley  and  the 
shadow  of  death,"  and  "As  earthly  parents  give 
good  gifts  to  their  children,"  and  "Run  and  have 
free  course  and  be  glorified." 

(5)  hielegant  expressions  are  to  be  avoided.  Some 
of  these  survive  in  prayer  although  everywhere  else 
they  are  counted  obsolete.  Such  as  "We  commit 
us  to  thee,"  "We  do  pray."  Others  are  illus- 
trations of  clumsy  English,  such  as  :  "  Grant  to 
bless,"  "Do  thou  be  present"  (for  "Be  thou 
present,")  and  "Divine  Presence,"  instead  of 
"  The  Divine  Presence."  It  ought  not  to  be  neces- 
sary to  warn  the  minister  against  such  inaccuracy 
as  "Forgive  us  of  our  sins,"  and  he  who  has  not 

lA.  S.Hill,  "Our  English,"  p.  155. 


PUBLIC   PRAYER  II5 

learned  to  avoid  such  closing  phrases  as  "  When 
thou  art  done  with  us  here,"  or  even  worse, 
"When  thou  art  through  with  us  here,"  lacks 
either  schooling  or  sense. 

(6)  Against  nothing  should  the  minister  guard  his 
speech  in  prayer  more  jealously  than  the  tiresome 
repetition  of  the  same  form.  In  beginning  the 
prayer  avoid  the  monotonous  use  of  the  words, 
"We  thank  thee,"  such  forms  as  "We  pray," 
"We  beseech  thee,"  "We  ask  thee,"  "  Will  the 
Lord  be  pleased,"  become  wholly  unmeaning  by 
incessant  iteration,  while  the  word  "bless"  at 
the  beginning  of  each  petition, — "  Bless  the  Sun- 
day-school," "Bless  the  Bible  classes,"  "Bless 
the  sewing  circle," — is  intolerable.  "  How  many 
prayers,"  says  Spurgeon,  "are  like  the  grocers' 
bills,  'Ditto,  ditto,  ditto,'  or  'As  per  usual.'" 
Remember  that  the  monotonous  soon  becomes  the 
unmeaning.  The  objection  to  read  prayers  that 
they  lose  their  power  by  frequent  repetition,  holds 
with  still  greater  force  against  numbers  of  prayers 
that  are  not  read.  Only  a  vigorous  effort  delivers 
us  from  the  bondage  to  the  letter  in  prayer  as  in 
other  matters.  Dr.  A.  K.  H.  Boyd  gives  the  case 
of  an  aged  minister  at  Arbroath,  in  Scotland,  who 
had  used  the  same  prayer  during  all  his  pastorate, 
so  that  a  deaf  woman  who  used  to  stand  on  the  pul- 
pit stairs  had  committed  it  to  memory,  and  she  had 
got  into  the  habit  of  uttering  it,  always  a  few  words 
in  advance  of  the  minister,  without  being  conscious 
that  she  was  heard  by  the  congregation.     As  a  still 


1 1.6  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

more  serious  illustration  of  the  peril  with  which  we 
are  dealing,  he  says  that  a  minister  of  the  Presby- 
tery on  a  visit  to  a  neighbor's  house  was  asked  to 
pray  in  the  family,  and  while  doing  so  he  fell  into 
the  prayer  of  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper, 
and  was  not  arrested  till  he  had  consecrated  the  ele- 
ments of  bread  and  wine. 

(7)  At  the  present  time  we  seem  to  be  in  danger 
of  running  to  an  opposite  extreme  from  the  stately 
rhetoric  of  earlier  days,  and  it  is  therefore  neces- 
sary to  warn  the  young  preacher  against  over- 
familiarity  in  prayer,  and  especially  against  what 
have  been  called  "amatory  phrases."^  The  con- 
stant use  of  the  epithet  "dear" — "Dear  Lord," 
"Our  dear  Father,"  "Dear  Jesus," — and  the 
multiplication  of  terms  of  endearment,  such  as, 
"Our  dear  heavenly  Father,"  are  to  be  avoided. 
Use  no  phrase  in  prayer  which  misrepresents  the 
character  and  will  of  God.  He  is  willing  to  answer 
us,  he  is  waiting  to  bless.  The  language  of  ur- 
gency— "  Do  Lord  " — is  a  libel  on  his  nature  and 
purpose. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  well  to  add  that  Scripture 
precedent  and  authority  are  in  favor  of  the  rule 
that  prayer  should  be  addressed  to  the  Father,  with 
a  recognition  of  the  intercessory  office  of  the  Son, 
and  of  the  mission  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  There  is 
good  authority,  both  in  the  New  Testament  and  in 
the  practice  of  the  early  church,  for  direct  address 

1  Kern,  "  The  Ministry  to  the  Congregation,"  p.  75.     Fairbairn,  "  Pastoral 
Theology,"  p.  318. 


PUBLIC   PRAYER  II7 

to  Christ ;  but  in  the  ordinary  prayers  of  the  con- 
gregation the  fuller  order  seems  preferable.^ 

(8)  The  tendency  to  preach  in  prayer  should  also 
be  avoided.  John  B.  Gough  recalls  the  words  with 
which  a  minister,  having  opened  the  meeting  with 
prayer,  introduced  him  as  the  lecturer  of  the  even- 
ing :  "Ladies  and  gentlemen:  as  I  have  informed 
you  in  my  prayer,  the  temperance  cause  is  in  a 
healthy  state."  Would  that  he  had  been  the 
only  sinner  in  this  way  !  The  disposition  to  give 
information  in  prayer,  and  so  by  an  indirect  route 
to  reach  the  congregation,  is  so  common  that  a  word 
of  warning  is  needed.  Ask  yourself,  for  instance, 
for  whose  ear  such  a  prayer  as  the  following  is  in- 
tended :  "  Of  light,  thou  art  the  Fountain  and  the 
Center.  God  said.  Let  there  be  light ;  and  there 
was  light — himself  shone  upon  the  brooding  dark- 
ness. Shine  in  our  hearts  ;  be  the  morning  of  our 
lives  ;  be  the  summer  of  our  soul.  Jesus  Christ, 
thy  Son,  is  the  Light  of  the  world.  As  long  as  he 
is  in  the  world  he  is  the  Light  of  the  world  ;  he 
abideth  with  us  forever,  therefore  are  we  living  in 
the  day  of  light  and  in  the  presence  of  light."  In 
the  days  when  the  principal  prayer  took  up  the 
better  part  of  an  hour  this  habit  of  preaching  may 
have  been  excusable.  But  these  days  are  past ; 
and  now  the  minister  will  do  well  to  be  on  his  guard 
against  the  intrusion  of  it  with  the  sermon. 

1  Porter,  Homiletics,"  p.  287.  "Life  of  Lyman  Beecher,"  Vol.  IL,  p.  112. 
"Life  of  Charles  Hodge,  D.  D.,"  p.  163.  "Life  of  Bishop  Wilberforce," 
p.  205. 


Il8  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

II.  We  may  glance  at  some  general  characteris- 
tics by  which  Public  Prayer  should  be  distinguished. 

I.  Among  these  we  must  certainly  mention  solem- 
nity. The  exclamation  of  Lyman  Beecher  in  his 
old  age,  "We  have  seen  thee,  heard  thee,  felt 
thee!  God,  thou  art  God!"  should  express  our 
profound  conviction  as  we  pray.  Let  there  be 
seriousness  in  spirit  and  there  will  also  be  serious- 
ness in  tone. 

(i)  Do  not  allow  yourself  to  be  hurried.  Pause 
before  beginning  to  pray,  until  there  is  perfect  si- 
lence on  the  part  of  the  congregation,  hi  your  line 
of  thought,  as  of  language,  move  with  dignity  and 
composure. 

(2)  It  need  scarcely  be  added  that,  under  no  pro- 
vocation or  excitement,  should  the  minister  allow 
himself  to  indulge  in  personalities  in  prayer.  To 
do  this  is  always  cowardly  and  often  profane.  The 
patriotic  passion  of  the  hour  did  not  condone  the 
offense  when  a  New  England  divine  who  lived  in 
the  days  of  the  Revolution  prayed  on  a  public 
occasion  :  "  O  Lord,  have  mercy  on  the  sovereigns 
of  Europe  ;  convert  their  souls  ;  give  them  short 
lives  and  happy  deaths  ;  take  them  to  heaven,  and 
let  us  have  no  more  of  them."  The  stately  Eng- 
lishman who  always  came  late  to  his  church,  and 
walked  up  the  aisle  during  prayer,  transgressed  more 
than  one  of  the  commandments  by  doing  so  ;  but 
that  did  not  excuse  his  pastor,  Father  Moody,  of 
York,  Maine,  for  breaking  out :  "  And,  O  good  Lord, 
among  thy  other  kind  dispensations,  cure  thy  serv- 


PUBLIC   PRAYER  II9 

ant  who  has  just  entered  thy  house,  of  that  un- 
godly strut."  In  the  same  way  Whitefield  prayed 
openly  for  a  minister  who  himself  could  pray  neither 
freely  nor  well,  that  "God  would  open  his  dumb 
dog's  mouth."  It  was  after  Emerson  had  deliv- 
ered an  address  during  commencement  before  a  New 
England  college  that  a  neighboring  minister,  being 
called  upon  to  pray,  freed  his  mind  thus  :  "  We  be- 
seech thee,  O  Lord,  to  deliver  us  from  ever  hear- 
ing any  more  such  transcendental  nonsense  as  we 
have  just  listened  to  from  this  sacred  desk."  After 
the  benediction,  Mr.  Emerson  asked  his  next  neigh- 
bor the  name  of  the  officiating  clergyman,  and  on 
learning  who  he  was,  remarked  with  characteristic 
suavity  :  "  He  seems  a  very  conscientious,  plain- 
spoken  man." 

The  minister  must  have  a  pastoral  experience 
of  rare  felicity  who  under  the  conviction  that  he  has 
been  maligned  or  misunderstood,  or  brought  face  to 
face  with  some  flagrant  case  of  meanness  or  bad 
faith  on  the  part  of  one  in  whom  he  has  trusted,  has  , 
not  needed  to  fight  the  temptation  to  be  personal' 
in  public  prayer.  Under  no  circumstances  must 
he  yield  to  it.  It  is  unpardonable,  also,  to  suggest 
ludicrous  ideas  in  prayer.  A  minister  in  London 
prayed  probaby  before  a  disappointing  vision  of  the 
offertory  :  "  Forgive  us,  O  Lord,  if  at  any  time  we 
have  given  pence  when  we  should  have  given  sil- 
ver, if  we  have  given  silver  when  we  ought  to  have 
given  gold,  and  if  we  have  given  gold  when  we 
might  have  given  bank-notes."     This  was  not  in 


120  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

worse  taste  than  the  prayer  with  which  a  minister 
at  one  of  the  fashionable  summer  resorts  is  credited, 
when  the  advancing  season  had  left  his  resident 
congregation  more  at  leisure  for  religious  exercises  : 
"O  Lord,  now  that  our  summer  visitors  have  de- 
parted, wilt  thou  take  their  place  in  our  hearts." 
These  prayers  are  sufficiently  condemned  if  we  con- 
sider that  they  were  not  intended  for  the  ear  of  God. 
A  due  sense  of  the  solemnity  of  the  exercise  will  set 
bounds  about  it,  as  about  Mount  Sinai,  so  that  the 
unsanctified  hand  and  heedless  foot  shall  not  touch 
it. 

2.  No  prayer  in  the  congregation  can  be  effective 
which  is  lacking  in  the  quality  of  sympathy.  In 
some  special  sense  the  minister  in  public  prayer 
stands  with  his  hand  resting  on  the  human  need 
and  his  eye  lifted  to  the  divine  sufficiency.  Conse- 
quently he  must  be  in  close  touch  alike  with  God 
and  with  man. 

(i)  Certainly  his  first  endeavor  should  be  to  bring 
himself  into  complete  accord  with  the  purposes  of 
God,  and  with  his  dealings  with  men.  Edward 
Irving  puts  this  well  when  he  says:  "  The  scope 
and  spirit  of  our  prayer  should  be  limited  by  the 
promises  of  God.  This  is  to  make  prayer  a  matter 
of  serious  premeditation.  And,  to  keep  it  progres- 
sive with  an  understanding  of  the  Scriptures,  a 
knowledge  of  the  purpose  of  God  must  precede  it; 
and  without  that  knowledge  it  is  an  empty  form,  or 
rather  a  sinful  liberty  taken  with  the  ear  of  God. 
As  if  you  would  go  to  a  judge  and  ask  him  to  favor 


PUBLIC   PRAYER  121 

your  case,  or  to  a  friend  and  ask  him  to  do  you  a 
wrong  ;  or  it  is  as  if,  having  received  intelligence 
from  a  distant  correspondent,  you  should  presume 
to  write  back  to  him  upon  the  subject  without  be- 
ing at  the  pains  to  peruse  what  he  had  said.  It  is 
most  lamentable  to  hear  very  often  how  this  neces- 
sary rule  of  prayer  is  broken  through,  and  with 
what  rude,  unprepared  language  the  ear  of  God  is 
vexed." 

(2)  Scarcely  less  important  is  it  that  the  minister 
be  in  very  close  sympathy  with  men.  Let  him  be, 
as  was  his  Lord,  touched  with  the  feeling  of  our  in- 
firmities. He  himself  must  have  suffered,  being 
tempted.  As  with  the  high  priest  so  should  it  be 
with  him;  he  must  be  "taken  from  among  men." 
Previous  preparation  wfll  have  helped  him  to  gather 
up  the  varied  circumstances  and  conditions  of  the 
congregation.  He  will  have  in  mind,  as  he  prays, 
the  conflicts,  the  victories  and  the  defeats,  the  hopes 
and  joys,  the  fears  and  sorrows  of  those  who  are 
worshiping  with  him.  He  may  not  have  at  com- 
mand such  language  as  clothed  the  prayer  of  Robert 
Louis  Stevenson  on  the  evening  before  his  death, 
but  the  tender  human  spirit  of  it  he  may  well  emu- 
late in  the  larger  household  to  which  he  ministers  : 
'•  We  beseech  thee.  Lord,  to  behold  us  with  favor, 
folk  of  many  families  and  nations  gathered  together 
in  the  peace  of  this  roof,  weak  men  and  women 
existing  under  the  covert  of  thy  patience.  Be 
patient  still  ;  suffer  us  yet  a  little  longer — with  our 
broken  purposes  of  good,  with  our  idle  endeavors 


122  PUBLIC   WORSHIP 

against  evil  ;  suffer  us  awhile  longer  to  endure,  and 
(if  it  may  be)  help  us  to  do  better.  Bless  to  us  our 
extraordinary  mercies  ;  if  the  day  come  when  these 
must  be  taken,  brace  us  to  play  the  man  under 
affliction.  Be  with  our  friends,  be  with  ourselves. 
Go  with  each  of  us  to  rest ;  if  any  awake,  temper 
to  them  the  dark  hours  of  watching ;  and  when  the 
day  returns,  return  to  us,  our  sun  and  comforter, 
and  call  us  up  with  morning  faces  and  with  morn- 
ing hearts — eager  to  labor — eager  to  be  happy,  if 
happiness  shall  be  our  portion — and  if  the  day  is 
marked  for  sorrow,  strong  to  endure  it.     Amen." 

3.  This  suggests  a  third  characteristic  of  public 
prayer,  namely,  devout  confidence.  Let  there  be 
much  thanksgiving  and  praise.  Be  courageous.  Be 
truthful.  Be  expectant.  Quicken  the  heart  of  every 
true  worshiper  with  the  spirit  of  hope.  "  To  him," 
says  a  friend  of  Dr.  Constans  L.  Goodall,  "prayer 
was  no  mere  intellectual  rhapsody  or  emotional 
ecstasy  ;  it  was  the  mighty  power  that  moved  the 
arm  of  Omnipotence  ;  the  outpouring  of  a  soul  that 
touched  the  heart  of  Omniscience  ;  the  outgoing  of 
a  faith  that  was  boundless  as  Omnipresence,  for  it 
had  its  origin  and  root  in  God  himself."  Such 
prayer  as  this  is  strong  in  the  confidence  which  is 
expressed  by  the  old  English  divine  :  "  Good  prayers 
never  come  weeping  home.  I  am  sure  I  shall  re- 
ceive either  what  I  ask  or  what  1  should  ask."  No 
nerveless  fingers  can  discharge  the  "strong  bolts 
shot  up  to  heaven  "  by  which  Luther  and  Knox 
and  Whitefield  prevailed  in  prayer.     "  A  man  that 


PUBLIC   PRAYER  I23 

could  pray  like  that,"  exclaimed  one  minister  to 
another  after  hearing  Spurgeon,  "could  intluence 
the  world." 

4.  To  the  characteristics  of  solemnity,  sympathy, 
and  holy  confidence,  we  must  add  one  more — 
dliect^ness.  Come  at  once  to  the  mercy-seat.  A 
few  words  of  invocation  at  the  beginning  of  the  serv- 
ice will  often  do  this.  The  old  soldier  charged  at 
the  battle  of  Edgehill  with  the  prayer  of  which 
Hume  said  that  no  doubt  there  were  many  longer 
but  hardly  one  so  good  offered  that  day  :  "  O  Lord, 
thou  knowest  how  busy  I  must  be  this  day.  If  I 
forget  thee,  do  not  thou  forget  me."  We  recall 
this,  because  it  illustrates  the  grace  of  directness 
which  we  are  commending.  To  come  to  practical 
counsels,  we  advise  that  in  his  language,  while  not 
too  familiar,  the  minister  be  specific  and  plain.  Do 
not  pray  :  "  Bless  that  invaluable  institution  which 
has  for  its  object  the  bringing  up  of  the  young  in  the 
nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord."  No;  say 
rather,  "  Bless  the  Sunday-school."  The  late 
George  Gilfillan,  of  Dundee,  dared  to  use  the  word 
"  potato  "  freely  in  his  congregational  prayers  dur- 
ing the  blight  of  1848.  He  refused  to  indulge  in 
allusive  references  or  circumlocution.  And  so  at 
last  he  was  able  to  say  :  "  We  thank  thee,  O  Lord, 
that  there  is  no  potato  blight  this  year  !  " 

(i)  Cultivate  minuteness  without  triviality.  Avoid 
extremes.  Do  not  be  too  general.  The  subject- 
ive prayer  which  resolves  itself  into  a  rhapsody  or 
a  reverie  has  no  precedent  in  Scripture.     Channing 


124  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

"never  prayed  for  anything  outward."'  But 
Paul  writes  to  tlie  Philippians  :  "  In  everything  by 
prayer  and  supplication  with  thanksgiving  let  your 
requests  be  made  known  unto  God."  ^ 

(2)  On  the  other  hand,  beware  of  trivial  minute- 
ness. A  minister  returning  to  his  weekly  prayer 
meeting  after  having  had  a  new  set  of  teeth  put  in, 
was  more  amused  than  gratified  when  one  good 
brother  prayed  :  "  Lord,  we  thank  thee  that  thou 
hast  brought  back  our  dear  pastor,  and  now  that 
thou  hast  given  him  his  new  artificial  members, 
bless  them  to  the  proclamation  of  thy  truth."' 
This  was  perhaps  pardonable  in  a  simple  peasant, 
but  the  minister  in  Glasgow  should  have  restrained 
his  tendency  to  detail  when  he  offered  up  a  prayer 
for  "  the  safety  of  those  taking  part  in  the  exhilara- 
ting but  lawful  enjoyment  upon  the  ice."  The  mi- 
nuteness of  the  Episcopal  Prayer-book  is  not  offen- 
sive when  it  pleads  with  much  particularity  for 
"  thy  servant  for  whose  preservation  on  the  great 
deep  our  prayers  are  desired."  A  prayer  in  Edward 
the  Sixth's  prayer-book  does  not  hesitate  to  deal 
with  great  social  wrongs  :  "  We  heartily  pray  thee 
to  send  thy  Holy  Spirit  into  the  hearts  of  them 
that  possess  the  pastures  and  ground  of  the  earth, 
that  they  remembering  themselves  to  be  thy  ten- 
ants may  not  rack  or  stretch  out  the  rents  of  their 
houses  or  lands,  nor  yet  take  unreasonable  fines  or 
moneys  after  the  manner  of  covetous  groundlings  ; 

1  Peabody's  "  Reminiscences  of  Channing,"  p.  14. 
2  Phil.  4:6.        3  w.  Williams,  "  Reminiscences  of  C.  H.  Spurgeon,"  p.  33. 


PUBLIC  PRAYER  I25 

but  so  let  them  out  tliat  the  inhabitants  thereof 
may  be  able  to  pay  the  rents  and  to  live  and  nour- 
ish their  families,  and  remember  the  poor."  There 
must  have  been  a  fearlessness  of  particularity  in 
the  prayers  of  Father  Wilson,  of  the  First  Church 
of  Boston,  when  his  hearers  once  begged  him  to 
stop  praying  for  rain,  because  since  he  began  to 
do  so  some  of  the  neighboring  towns  had  been 
flooded.  And  to  come  to  later  instances,  one  re- 
calls as  excellent  in  spirit  and  language  the  prayer 
in  which  Henry  Ward  Beecher  pleaded  for  the  life 
of  President  Grant  when  he  was  on  his  death- 
bed ;  and  the  prayer  with  which  Dr.  Maclaren  be- 
sought for  the  queen  of  England,  under  the  shadow 
of  a  great  domestic  loss,  that  cheer  and  calm  might 
be  granted,  and  that  "the  thrill  of  passion  and 
sympathy  which  has  moved  this  great  nation  may 
not  pass  unimproved,  but  that  it  may  help  to  lead 
many  more  wisely  to  consider  how  vain  is  the  show 
of  earth,  how  solid  the  realities  of  heaven."  Nor 
would  the  member  of  his  congregation  in  a  great 
mill-town  of  England  fail  to  be  touched  as  Dr. 
Fairbairn  prayed  :  "  Many  of  us  live  by  the  sweat 
of  the  brow  ;  some  of  us  by  the  sweat  of  the  brain  ; 
and  many  by  the  sweat  of  the  heart.  That,  O 
Lord,  thou  knowest  is  the  hardest  sweat  of  all." 


VII 
PUBLIC  PRAYER  (CONCLUDED) 


SUMMARY 


I.  The  Invocation. 

1.  The  Lord's  Prayer. 

2.  Words  taken  from  Scripture  and  inviting  to  worship. 

3.  Verses  of  Scripture  followed  by  the  Lord's  Prayer  or 

by  a  prayer  of  invocation. 

4.  A  Prayer  of  Invocation. 

II.  The  Principal  Prayer. 

1.  As  to  its  length. 

2.  Parts  of  the  Principal   Prayer:   (i)   Adoration    and 

thanksgiving  ;  (2)  Confession  and  intercession  ;  (3) 
Petition. 
Counsels  : 

1.  Aim  to  make  the  prayer  inclusive. 

2.  Remember  objects  likely  to  be  overlooked. 

3.  Vary  the  prayer. 

4.  Yet  do  not  fear  to  repeat. 

5.  Train   the  congregation   to  conclude  with  the 

"  amen." 

III.  THE  Prayer  after  the  Sermon. 

r.  Must  have  a  special  bearing  on  the  sermon. 

2.  Should  touch  on  the  whole  service,  and  commend  the 

congregation,  in  dispersing,  to  God. 

3.  This  prayer  may  sometimes  be  omitted. 

IV.  THE  Benediction. 

1.  Study  variety  of  form. 

2.  Be  very  solemn  and  deliberate. 

3.  By  attitude  and  phraseology  show  that  you  are  one  of 

the  congregation. 

4.  Keep  the  people  in  the  attitude  of  devotion  for  a  few 

moments  after  the  conclusion  of  the  prayer. 


VII 

PUBLIC  PRAYER   (CONCLUDED) 

I.  Although  by  no  means  universal,  yet  it  is  a 
very  general  practice  to  begin  the  public  service 
with  some  form  of  Invocation,  and  we  may,  there- 
fore, consider  this  first. 

1.  The  simplest  method  of  commencing  the  serv- 
ice is  by  repeating  the  Lord's  Prayer  with  the 
congregation.  Unless  this  is  done  heartily,  how- 
ever, it  had  better  not  be  done  at  all.  The  people 
will  need  to  be  trctined,  and  even  then  it  will  be 
needful  now  and  again  to  remind  them  of  their  duty. 

2.  Much  can  be  said  in  favor  of  opening  the  service 
with  passages  of  Scripture  inviting  to  worship,^  the 
congregation  standing  meanwhile.  The  gloria,  sung 
by  all  the  congregation,  may  very  well  follow. 

3.  Sometimes  these  verses  are  succeeded  by  a 
prayer  of  invocation,  or  by  the  congregational  use 
of  the  Lord's  Prayer.  The  order  may  be  further 
varied  if  the  service  begins  with  the  doxology,  to 
which  succeeds  a  prayer  of  invocation,  closing  with 
the  general  repetition  of  the  Lord's  Prayer. 

4.  Perhaps  to  the  majority  of  ministers  the  invo- 
cation is  the  most  difficult,  as  to  the  people  it  is  the 

'  Such  as  Num.  6  :  24-26 ;   Eph,  i  :  3,  4  ;    Phil.  2  :  9-11 ;  Heb.  13  :  20,  21 ; 
2  Peter  i :  2,  3  ;  Rev.  i :  5,  6. 

I  129 


130  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

least  profitable  of  all  the  prayers  in  the  public  serv- 
ice. The  congregation  has  not  fully  assembled. 
In  a  chilly  atmosphere  the  voice  may  seem  thin  and 
unsympathetic.  There  has  as  yet  been  no  con- 
scious interchange  of  feeling  between  the  minister 
and  the  people.  For  these  reasons  a  hymn,  or 
some  other  such  form  as  we  have  suggested,  may 
be  preferred,  A  common  act  of  worship  in  which 
all  the  congregation  joins  strikes  the  keynote  for 
the  service  more  happily  than  does  the  prayer,  un- 
less it  be  singularly  fortunate.  No  one  who  once 
heard  it  will  forget  the  prayer  with  which  Mr.  Spur- 
geon  opened  his  morning  service.  Brief  though  it 
was,  we  can  understand  why  a  minister  from 
America  should  declare  that  to  hear  that  and  nothing 
else  was  alone  worth  crossing  the  Atlantic.  The 
invocation  should  be  true  to  its  name.  Call  down 
the  blessing  of  God  upon  those  who  are  present, 
and  upon  all  worshiping  congregations  everywhere, 
and  do  not  fail  to  remember  those  who  in  the  suf- 
fering of  the  sick  chamber  or  the  loneliness  of  the 
house  of  mourning  have  their  windows  also  open 
toward  Jerusalem,  Be  concise,  fervid,  and  sympa- 
thetic, and  use  largely  the  words  and  thoughts  of 
Scripture. 

II.  We  pass  on  to  consider  the  Principal  Prayer. 
In  some  cases  this  prayer  has  with  advantage  been 
divided  into  two  parts,  with  a  hymn  or  chant  be- 
tween. This  has  been  intended  to  obviate  the  ob- 
jection that  the  prayer  is  apt  to  be  long,  and  yet 
to  give  an  opportunity  for  embracing  in  it  the  va- 


PUBLIC  PRAYER  131 

rious  matters  which  needed  to  be  mentioned.  It 
might  be  well  to  consider  whether  this  arrangement 
has  not  very  much  to  be  said  in  its  favor ;  but  our 
present  duty  is  with  the  prayer  as  a  whole. 

I.  And  first,  let  us  deal  with  its  length.  It  is 
significant  that  for  two  centuries  it  has  been  gener- 
ally known  as  "the  long  prayer."  With  the  Puri- 
tans this  was  no  figure  of  speech.  The  prayer  was 
really  long.  "The  warning  legend,  *  Be  short,' 
which  Cotton  Mather  inscribed  over  his  study  door, 
was  not  written  over  his  pulpit  ;  for  he  wrote  in  his 
diary  that  at  his  own  ordination  he  '  prayed  for  an 
hour  and  a  quarter.'"'  That  the  people  loved  to 
have  it  so  we  may  infer  from  the  fact  that  when 
the  Rev.  Samuel  Terrey,  of  Weymouth,  Massachu- 
setts, prayed  two  hours  without  stopping,  upon  a 
public  fast  day  in  1696,  it  is  recorded  that  his  "  au- 
dience wished  that  the  prayer  had  been  longer." 
Professor  Phelps,  in  language  which  has  a  suspicion 
of  humor  in  it,  records  of  Father  Wilson,  of  the 
First  Church  of  Boston,  that  he  "  often  prayed  two 
hours  at  a  stretch."  Within  a  few  years  a  prayer 
of  forty-five  minutes  was  delivered  by  the  assist- 
ant pastor  in  a  Scottish  parish,  and  then  only  con- 
cluded because  "  his  superior  pulled  his  coat-tails  to 
draw  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  congregation 
were  leaving  the  church."  Perhaps  we  ourselves 
may  be  able  to  agree  with  Dr.  N.  I.  Burton  when 
he  says  :  "  The  moment  I  closed  my  eyes,  time 
was  cheap.     In  the  bliss  of  amplification  I  took  not 

1  Earl,  "The  Sabbath  in  Puritan  New  England,"  pp.  79,  81. 


132  PUBLIC   WORSHIP 

note  of  time  ;  and  what  is  so  blissful  as  amplifica- 
tion ?"*  Certainly  we  shall  do  well  to  lay  to  heart 
his  wise  counsel  in  reference  to  this  prayer :  "  While 
you  keep  on  calling  it  long,  take  care  that  it  never 
is  long."  But  we  must  refuse  to  regulate  the 
length  of  this  prayer  entirely  by  the  watch.  Dr. 
C.  L.  Goodell,  who  excelled  in  congregational 
prayer,  rarely  exceeded  seven  minutes,  and  was 
often  not  more  than  five.  Mr.  Spurgeon  often 
prayed  fifteen  minutes,  and  then,  says  one  of  his 
hearers,  "  you  would  by  no  means  wish  him  to 
stop,  or  think  that  he  had  yet  prayed  long  enough."  * 
"  Everything  depends  upon  the  spirit,  the  range, 
the  appropriateness,  and  the  purpose  of  the  prayer." 
The  noble  words  of  Dr.  Dale  are  a  sufficient  vindi- 
cation of  this  view  :  "  in  our  public  prayer  we  must 
think  less  than  we  have  been  accustomed  to  think 
of  the  taste,  the  criticism,  the  impatience  of  the 
men  who  do  not  pray.  In  the  presence  of  the  aw- 
ful perils  from  which  we  ask  to  be  redeemed,  of 
the  infinite  blessings  we  desire  to  obtain,  and  of  the 
bright  perfections  we  adore,  we  must  not  be  troubled 
by  the  indifference  and  the  weariness  of  those  to 
whom  these  transcendent  terrors  and  glories  are 
all  unreal.  When  we  pray,  our  great  design  is  not 
to  move  men,  but  to  move  God  ;  and  if  we  fail  to 
do  that,  we  fail  altogether.  We  must  appeal  to  the 
Holy  Ghost."  ^ 

•  Burton,  "Yale  Lectures,"  p.  iqi. 
-  Dr.  Joseph  Parker,  "  AJ  Clerum."  Chap.  IX. 

'  R.  W.  Dale,  "  The  Holy  Spirit  in  relation  to  the  Ministry,  Worship,  and 
Work  of  the  Church,"  p.  37. 


PUBLIC   PRAYER  1 33 

In  passing,  it  may  be  well  to  caution  you  against 
long  preambles,  diffuseness,  and  repetition  in  your 
prayer.  Confine  yourself  to  such  subjects  as  are 
relevant.  Have  always  in  mind  the  congregation 
on  whose  behalf  you  are  praying.  Tennyson's 
words,  true  of  all  prayer,  are  especially  true  here  : 
"  Prayer  is,  to  take  a  mundane  simile,  like  opening 
a  sluice  between  the  great  ocean  and  our  little 
channels  when  the  great  sea  gathers  itself  toge- 
ther and  flows  in  at  full  tide."  ^  He  v/ho  opens  the 
sluice  needs  to  do  so  with  promptness  and  decision. 
Give  no  occasion  to  your  congregation  to  say  with 
Dr.  C.  H.  Parkhurst,  "  The  world  would  have 
been  badly  off  if  the  Almighty  had  not  known  bet- 
ter how  to  answer  prayers  than  do  men  to  make 
them." 

2.  We  come  now  to  parts  of  the  principal  prayer. 
These  are  three  :  First,  adoration  and  thanks- 
giving;  second,  confession  and  intercession;  third, 
petition.  These  parts  may  be  recalled  by  the  acros- 
tic :  A,  Ascription  and  Adoration  ;  C,  Confession  ; 
T,  Thanksgiving  ;  S,  Supplication  ;  the  letters  com- 
bined forming  the  word  ACTS.  A  friend  of 
Mr.  Spurgeon's  quotes  him  as  saying,  in  conversa- 
tion :  "  in  a  single  verse  old  Dr.  Watts  has  admira- 
bly taught  the  art  of  prayer.     1  will  give  it  to  you  : 

Call  upon  God,  adore,  confess, 

Petition,  plead,  and  then  declare 
You  are  the  Lord's.     Give  thanks  and  bless. 

And  let  Amen  conclude  the  prayer." 


*  "  Tennyson's  Life,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  324. 


134  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

(i)  While  it  seems  natural  to  begin  this  prayer 
with  words  of  adoration  and  thankfulness,  yet  this 
need  not  be  done  at  any  great  length,  because  the 
gratitude  and  joy  of  the  people  can  be  expressed 
even  better  in  the  hymns,  and  especially  in  that 
with  which  the  worship  is  begun.  The  fashion  for 
opening  the  prayer  with  elaborate  ascriptions  of 
praise  to  God,  (often  in  the  language  of  the 
schools  rather  than  in  that  of  Scripture),  has  passed 
away.  Yet  within  bounds  the  use  of  the  various 
names  and  attributes  of  God  as  incentives  to  adora- 
tion is  surely  to  be  commended.  Schoolman  though 
he  was,  there  was  much  of  the  saint  in  Thomas 
Aquinas  when  he  prayed  before  resuming  his 
studies  :  "  Ineffably  wise  and  good  Creator,  illus- 
trious Original,  true  fountain  of  Light  and  Wisdom, 
vouchsafe  to  infuse  into  my  understanding  some 
ray  of  thy  brightness.  Thou  that  makest  the 
tongues  of  infants  eloquent,  instruct,  I  pray  thee, 
my  tongue  likewise  ;  and  pour  upon  my  lips  the 
grace  of  thy  benediction." 

(2)  It  has  been  charged  upon  the  non-liturgical 
churches  that  they  do  not  as  a  rule  confess  their 
sins.  The  Episcopal  Prayer-book,  following  the 
traditional  order,  places  confession  first,  and  recurs 
to  it  more  than  once  as  the  service  proceeds.  Prob- 
ably there  is  reason  for  the  criticism  that  too  little 
space  is  given  to  confession  in  the  ordinary  extem- 
poraneous prayer.  Confession  is  central  in  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  and  whatever  place  it  occupies  in 
your  petition,  certainly  that  place  should  be  dis- 


PUBLIC  PRAYER  1 35 

tiiict  and  prominent.  At  the  same  time,  distinguish 
between  the  things  which  are  seemly  in  a  general 
prayer  and  those  which  should  be  confined  to 
prayer  offered  in  private  or  in  the  weekly  meeting 
for  prayer.  Do  not  let  the  confession  of  sins  hinder 
the  confession  of  sin.  It  is  possible  to  be  too  spe- 
cific, when  you  are  acknowledging  the  transgres- 
sions of  an  entire  congregation. 

(3)  Passing  to  petition,  we  would  suggest  that 
you  make  this  a  very  prominent  feature  of  your 
prayer.  "  Prayer  is,"  as  the  Westminster  divines 
put  it,  "the  offering  up  of  our  desires  to  God." 
"  Our  wants,"  said  Rutherford,  "  best  qualify  us 
for  Christ."  The  Lord's  Prayer  is  chiefly  petition, 
and  petition  is  also  the  staple  in  our  Lord's  direc- 
tions for  prayer  :  "  Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  you  ; 
seek,  and  ye  shall  find;  knock,  and  it  shall  be  opened 
unto  you."^  The  prayers  of  the  New  Testament 
have  the  same  character. 

Because  in  this  part  of  the  prayer  so  much  has 
to  be  remembered,  it  is  well  to  pursue  some  order  ; 
such  as,  personal  petitions  (experimental  in  their 
character),  petitions  bearing  on  our  relations  to 
others  ;  church  interests  ;  missions  ;  national  mat- 
ters (our  rulers,  magistrates,  and  lawgivers)  ;  the 
people  at  large  ;  the  nations  of  the  world  ;  the  future 
of  the  race.  The  order  may  be  reversed,  so  that 
from  the  outermost  circle  you  can  move  inward  to 
the  individual  life.    We  give  the  following  Counsels : 

^  Matt.  7:7;  Acts  I  :  24,  25  ;  4  :  24-30 ;   7  :  59,  60 ;  Eph.  i  :  17-19  ;  3  :  14-21  ; 
Phil.  I  :  g-n  ;  i  Thess.  3  :  10-13. 


136  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

1.  Only,  in  any  case,  aim  to  offer  up  such  a 
prayer  as  either  by  statement  or  suggestion  shall 
in  clear  and  reverent  language  embrace  the  wants 
and  circumstances  of  all. 

2.  Now  and  then  remember  in  this  prayer  the 
objects  which  are  likely  to  be  overlooked  ;  such  as 
prisoners  in  jails,  and  those  who  are  in  reforma- 
tories ;  those  bereft  of  their  reason,  inmates  of  alms- 
houses, patients  in  hospitals,  Christian  associations, 
colleges,  and  schools  of  sacred  learning  ;  and  often 
make  mention  of  the  public  schools  and  of  the 
teachers  who  are  engaged  in  them. 

3.  Further,  we  counsel  you  to  vary  your  prayer. 
You  are  under  no  obligation  to  pray  the  world  over 
at  every  service.  A  sentence  may  be  sufficiently 
comprehensive  to  embrace  many  wants  and  touch 
on  many  experiences.  To  say,  "We  thank  thee 
for  the  sweet  souls  which  have  made  it  easy  for 
us  to  believe  in  God  and  Christ  and  immortality," 
is  to  suggest  the  whole  household  of  faith.  To  say, 
"  Deep  calleth  unto  deep, — the  depth  of  our  ignor- 
ance to  the  depth  of  thy  knowledge  ;  the  depth  of 
our  need  to  the  depth  of  thy  fullness  ;  the  depth  of 
our  weakness  to  the  depth  of  thy  strength,"  is  at 
once  to  set  the  entire  congregation  on  the  thresh- 
old of  God's  treasure  house,  it  is  wise  to  study 
for  freshness  the  prayers  of  others.  After  a  lapse 
of  twenty  years  a  minister  recalls  the  prayer  with 
which  Mr.  Spurgeon  began  a  morning  service,  and 
often  it  must  have  incited  him  to  a  new  note  also  : 
"  Our  Gracious  God,  we,  thy  children,  bless  thee 


PUBLIC  PRAYER  1 37 

for  this  thy  day  ;  placed  not  now  at  the  end  of  a 
week  of  toil,  but  at  the  very  beginning  of  it,  for  we 
have  not  to  labor  to  obtain  the  day  of  rest,  but 
thou  dost  give  us  to  rest  first,  and  then  bid  us  go 
to  work  in  the  strength  received." ' 

4.  And  yet,  while  studying  freshness  and  variety 
in  the  forms  of  your  prayer,  be  not  unduly  afraid 
of  repetition.'  Because  human  nature  is  always 
the  same,  therefore  substantially  the  same  things 
need  to  be  often  prayed  for.  The  author  of  "  Rab 
and  his  Friends,"  tells  us  that  his  father.  Dr.  John 
Brown,  invariably  used  the  same  prayer  in  church 
on  Sunday  mornings,  giving  as  his  excuse  for  doing 
so,  that  he  could  not  improve  upon  it.  There  may 
be  a  change i)f  tune,  but  the  same  peal  of  bells  will 
have  to  be  rung,  week  after  week  ;  it  was  across 
the  very  harp  which  had  made  music  during  many 
a  melodious  hour  in  the  past  that  the  psalmist  ran 
his  fingers  when  he  cried,  "  O  sing  unto  the  Lord 
a  new  song  !  " 

5.  To  these  counsels  we  add  one  more.  Train 
the  whole  congregation,  if  possible,  to  join  with 
you  in  the  "  Amen  "  when  the  prayer  is  ended. 
The  rabbis  were  wont  to  say  that  by  so  doing  the 
people  set  their  names  to  an  epistle  written  by  the 
hand  of  another.  Thus  they  adopted  it  as  their 
own.  For  this  reason  the  leader  was  instructed  to 
pronounce  the  "  Amen  "  with  a  grave  and  distinct 
voice,  avoiding  any  appearance  of  haste  ;  and  in 
their  turn  the  people  were  bidden  to  utter  it  in  a 

1  Williams,  "  Reminiscences  of  Spurgeon,"  p.  26g. 


138  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

tone  subdued  and  solemn  ;  and  to  use  it  not  form- 
ally but  as  the  expression  of  their  belief  that  God 
would  indeed  hear  and  bless  them. 

ill.  Not  much  needs  to  be  said  as  to  the  Prayer 
After  the  Sermon.  It  should  be  very  brief.  Nat- 
urally it  will  have  a  special  bearing  upon  the  ser- 
mon which  has  just  been  preached.  To  this  this 
prayer  furnishes,  as  it  were,  a  heavenward  setting. 
It  carries  the  discourse,  the  preacher,  and  the  peo- 
ple up  to  the  throne  of  grace,  as  the  high  priest 
bore  Israel  on  his  heart  when  he  passed  within  the 
veil  and  stood  before  the  Mercy  Seat.  A  wider 
note  may  be  struck  by  it  if  you  touch  in  few  words 
upon  the  entire  service,  and  commit  to  the  love  of 
God  the  congregation  now  about  to  disperse.  There 
is  no  reason  why  the  prayer  should  not  occasionally 
be  omitted.  Especially  when  the  sermon  has  been 
of  a  searching  character,  when  it  has  appealed  to 
the  individual  conscience,  when  it  has  set  the  alter- 
natives of  life  and  death  before  the  people,  let  that 
be  the  last  word.  Under  these  circumstances  much 
might  be  gained  if  the  congregation  would  quickly 
disperse,  and  "  depart  every  one  to  his  house." 

IV.  As  to  the  Benediction,  the  following  points 
should  be  noted  : 

I.  Study  to  acquire  variety  of  form.  The  bene- 
dictions of  Scripture  are  numerous,  although  the 
majority  of  ministers  may  use  only  one  or  two. 
From  the  Old  Testament  take  the  one  benediction 
which  comes  direct  from  God  :  "  And  the  Lord 
spake  unto  Moses,  sayini^,  Speak  unto  Aaron  and 


PUBLIC  PRAYER  139 

unto  his  sons,  saying,  On  this  wise  ye  shall  bless 
the  children  of  Israel,  saying  unto  them.  The  Lord 
bless  thee,  and  keep  thee  :  The  Lord  make  his  face 
shine  upon  thee,  and  be  gracious  unto  thee  :  The 
Lord  lift  up  his  countenance  upon  thee,  and  give 
thee  peace."  ' 

A  selection  from  the  benedictions  of  the  Bible 
may  very  well  be  prepared,  and  printed  on  a  card, 
and  pasted  into  the  hymn-book,  or  kept  near  at 
hand  for  pulpit  use.* 

2.  in  the  use  of  the  formula,  just  because  it  is 
a  formula,  be  solemn,  impressive  and  deliberate. 
Haste  is  never  more  irreverent  in  public  worship 
than  it  is  here.  And  nowhere  is  it  so  fatally  easy 
to  fall  into  formalism.  The  way  of  escape  from 
this  is  through  the  sensibilities.  The  benedictions 
are  all  of  them  rich  in  devout  feeling.  It  was  Dean 
Stanley's  custom  "  to  give  a  three-fold  benediction  : 
The  Lord  bless  you  and  keep  you,  etc..  The 
Peace  of  God,  etc.,  and  The  Grace  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  etc.*  His  wife.  Lady  Augusta  Stan-" 
ley,  greatly  admired  this  triple  blessing,  and  begged 
him  always  to  think  specially  of  herself  when  pro- 
nouncing it.  "None  who  were  present  at  her  fu- 
neral can  forget  the  tremulous  yet  decided  voice, 
the  suppressed  emotion,  the  triumph  of  love,  as 
standing  at  the  end  of  the  nave,  the  Dean  closed 
the  service,  and  with  quivering  accents  made  this 

1  Num.  6  :  22-26. 

2  Such  as  :  Rom.  16  :  27  ;  i  Cor.  i6  :  23  ;  2  Cor.  13  :  14  ;    Gal.  1:3-5;  Phi'. 
4  :  23  ;  I  Tim.  i  :  17  ;  Heb.  13  :  25  ;  Jude  24,  25  ;  Rev.  i  :  5,  6, 

3  Num.  6  :  24-26  ;  Phil.  4:7;  2  Cor.  13  :  14. 


140  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

benediction  of  prophets  and  apostles  heard  through- 
out the  Abbey."  ' 

3.  By  posture  and  phraseology  avoid  giving  the 
impression  that  you  are  a  priest  occupying  an  offi- 
cial position  and  exercising  a  sacerdotal  function. 
"  There  is  one  God  and  one  mediator  between  God 
and  men,  the  man  Christ  Jesus."  ^  The  hands 
should  not  be  lifted  and  spread  out  in  the  posture 
of  blessing  the  people.  The  form  employed  should 
not  even  use  the  apostolic  "  with  you,"  but  rather 
the  congregational  "with  us." 

4.  For  a  few  moments  after  the  benediction  has 
been  uttered,  keep  the  congregation  in  the  attitude 
of  devotion.  This  may  be  done  by  pausing  after 
the  last  word  of  the  benediction,  and  before  say- 
ing amen.  It  may  also  be  done  by  having  the 
choir  chant  the  "Amen"  in  low  tones,  the  people, 
meanwhile,  remaining  with  bowed  heads.  Proba- 
bly the  best  arrangement  of  the  concluding  part  of 
the  service  is  to  have  the  hymn  immediately  follow 
the  sermon,  and  the  prayer  which  succeeds  it  close 
with  the  benediction,  the  people  remaining  either 
kneeling  or  seated,  in  any  case,  "  when  the  bene- 
diction is  pronounced  let  there  be  a  moment  of 
silent,  prayerful  response  in  the  congregation. 
Then  let  them  quietly  disperse."  * 

'  Dr.  Newman  Hall,  "  Reminiscences."  2  j  jjm.  2  :  5. 

3  Kern,  "  The  Ministry  in  the  Congregation,"  p.  77. 


VIII 
THE  READING  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES 


SUMMARY 


The  Value  of  the  public  Reading  of  the  Bible. 

This  may  be  learned  : 

1.  From  Scripture  :  (i)  Ezra;  (2)  Jesus. 

2.  From  later  history  :    (i)  The  early  church  laid  much 

stress  upon  it ;  (2)  Has  been  a  powerful  agency  in 
great  religious  awakenings;  (3)  Permanent  im- 
pressions often  made  by  it. 
Note.     As  to  the  reading  of  the  Bible  without  note  or 
comment. 

,  Directions   for  the   public  Reading"  of  the 
Bible. 

1.  Carefully  prepare  beforehand  :    (i)  Read  Authorized 

and  Revised  versions;  (2)  Read  in  private  for  your 
own  personal  profit ;  (3)  Read  alone  when  alone  with 
a  view  to  reading  in  public  ;  (4)  Read  with  a  view  to 
mastering  the  precise  thought  of  the  original. 

2.  Have  sufficient  reading  of  the  Scripture  in  the  public 

service. 

3.  Do  full  justice  to  the  whole  Bible. 

4.  Select  the  passages  to   be  read  with   a  view  to   the 

whole  service. 

5.  Take  this  part  of  the  service  yourself. 

6.  While  reading   concentrate  your  thoughts  upon   the 

work  which  you  are  doing. 

7.  Announce  the  passage  to  be  read  intelligently  and  dis- 

tinctly. 

8.  Use,  if  you  think  well,  some  brief  form  in  introducing 

and  concluding  the  reading. 

9.  Occasionally  it  may  be  well  to  expound  the  Scripture 

which  is  read. 


VIII 

THE  READING   OF  THE  SCRIPTURES 

The  subject  with  which  we  now  have  to  deal  is 
The  Reading  of  the  Scriptures,  a  part  of  public  wor- 
ship in  which,  for  lack  of  thought  or  training, 'golden 
opportunities  are  lost  by  the  majority  of  ministers. 

I.  In  order  to  do  justice  to  this  subject  we  may 
begin  by  considering  the  value  of  the  Public  Read- 
ing of  the  Bible. 

I.  The  first  illustration  of  this  comes,  as  we 
might  expect,  from  Scripture  itself. 

(i)  The  model  for  us  to  copy  is  found  in  Ezra, 
when  from  his  pulpit  of  wood,  one  September  morn- 
ing during  the  feast  of  Tabernacles,  he  unrolled 
before  the  eyes  of  the  expectant  multitude  the 
scroll  of  the  law,  and  not  only  read  from  morning 
until  evening,  but  read  so  well  that  his  hearers  re- 
mained standing  for  six  hours  "attentive  unto  the 
book  of  the  law."  ^  But  already  the  reading  of  the 
sacred  books  was  a  familiar  exercise  with  the  He- 
brews. In  the  audience  of  all  the  people,  Moses 
had  read  the  books  of  the  covenant.^  Entering 
into  the  land  of  Canaan,  as  leader  of  Israel,  Joshua 
read  to  them  all  the  words  of  the  law,  "the  bless- 
ings  and  cursings,   according  to  all   that  is  writ- 

1  Neh.  8  :  1-9.  2  Deut.  29. 

143 


144  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

ten  in  the  law." '  The  book  of  the  law  which  was 
recovered  when  the  temple  was  repaired  in  the 
reign  of  Josiah,  he  himself  read  in  the  ears  of  "  all 
the  people  great  and  small.'"'  And  stronger  than 
any  of  these  must  have  been  the  influence  of  the 
parental  example  in  cases  where  the  father  was 
faithful  to  the  divine  injunction  :  "  These  words 
which  I  command  thee  .  .  .  thou  shalt  teach  them 
diligently  unto  thy  children,  and  shalt  talk  of  them 
when  thou  sittest  in  thine  house,  and  when  thou 
walkest  by  the  way,  and  when  thou  liest  down, 
and  when  thou  risest  up."^ 

(2)  The  service  in  the  synagogue  was  largely 
composed  of  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures.  To  it 
Jesus  gave  a  new  lustre  when  one  day,  during 
worship  in  the  city  where  he  had  been  brought  up, 
he  took  the  book  from  the  minister,  and  opening  it 
read  the  great  prophetic  words  which  only  at  that 
moment  received  their  fulfillment.  No  wonder  that 
"  the  eyes  of  all  in  the  synagogue  were  fastened 
on  him."  * 

2.  Another  illustration  comes  from  later  history. 

(i)  The  early  church  evidently  laid  great  em- 
phasis upon  this  part  of  the  service.  In  the  very 
ancient  church  of  St.  Clement  at  Rome  are  still  io 
be  seen  the  two  marble  ambons,  or  pulpits,  from 
which  the  Scriptures  were  read.  "  A  place  of 
honor  was  made  for  them  in  order  to  mark  well  the 
importance  which  was  given  to  the  book  of  God  in 
public  worship.     The   ambon  of  the  Gospel  was 

1  Josh.  8  :  34.        ^2  Chron.  34  :  30.        3  Deut.  6  :  6,  7.         ■*  Luke  4  :  20. 


THE   READING  OF  THE   SCRIPTURES  145 

higher  than  that  of  the  Epistles,  as  if  to  witness 
that  the  source  of  all  religious  authority  was  in- 
deed he  who  is  greater  than  all  the  apostles — Jesus 
Christ  the  Son  of  God,  These  two  pulpits  of  the 
basilica  of  St.  Clement  remain  as  monuments  of 
the  great  epoch  of  primitive  Christianity,  witnesses 
against  the  worship  in  which  the  Holy  Book,  instead 
of  being  read  in  a  manner  that  can  be  understood, 
becomes  a  monotonous  mimical  chant  in  a  language 
which  is  dead,  and  which  carries  only  its  sounds  to 
the  ear,  without  giving  a  single  thought  to  the  mind 
or  heart."  ^ 

(2)  It  would  be  easy  to  prove  from  history  that 
the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  has  once  and  again 
been  a  powerful  agency  in  great  religious  awaken- 
ings. It  was  so  when  Savonarola  read  from  his 
little  Bible  before  the  thousands  crowding  about 
him  in  the  Duomo  at  Florence  ;  and  when  Wycliffe's 
"Poor  Preachers"  carried  the  word  through  the 
villages  of  England  ;  and  when  Luther's  Bible 
roused  the  conscience  of  Germany ;  and  when 
"doctors  and  abbots,  men  of  all  ranks  and  titles 
flocked  with  the  students"^  into  Colet's  lecture 
hall  in  Oxford,  to  hear  him  read  and  expound  the 
Epistles  ;  and  when  crowds  gathered  about  the 
chained  Bibles  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  and  persisted 
in  reading  them  aloud,  even  during  the  public 
services. 

(3)  But  there  is  no  need  to  appeal  to  the  past. 
The  same  book  lies  open  in  the  hand  of  the  minis- 

'  Pressense.  2  Seebohm,  "  The  Oxford  Reformers,"  p.  n. 

K 


146  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

ter  to-day,  and  the  records  of  the  pulpit  witness 
that  permanent  good  has  repeatedly  been  effected 
by  the  serious  and  intelligent  reading  of  the  Bible 
in  public  worship.  In  this  exercise  William  Jay,  of 
Bath,  "  never  forgot  that  he  was  enunciating  the 
words  of  the  Most  High  "  ;  his  contemporary,  Dr. 
McAll,  of  Manchester,  testified  that  it  had  come  to 
his  knowledge  that  "  some  of  the  most  powerful 
impressions  which  had  been  made  on  the  hearts  of 
his  hearers  had  been  wrought  by  the  simple  read- 
ing of  the  word  of  God,"  and  he  added,  "If  the 
Lord  had  appointed  two  officers  in  his  church,  the 
one  to  preach  the  Gospel  and  the  other  to  read 
the  Scriptures,  and  had  given  me  the  choice  of 
these,  I  should  have  chosen  to  be  a  reader  of  the 
inspired  word  of  Jehovah."  The  reading  of  the 
Bible  in  church,  by  Bishop  Jacobson  of  Chester 
was,  says  of  one  of  his  hearers,  "  in  itself  a  com- 
mentary, the  commentary  of  a  deep  theologian." 
In  the  same  way,  by  emphasizing  the  proper  word 
Dr.  Maclaren  "often  throws  a  flood  of  interpreta- 
tive and  homiletic  light  upon  the  passage  in  which 
it  occurs."  His  reading  of  Nathan's  words  to  David, 
"Thou  art  the  man,"  not  loud  and  denunciatory, 
but  like  oil  upon  the  fire  of  the  king's  indignation, 
slow,  distinct,  intense,  made  for  at  least  one  wor- 
shiper in  his  congregation  "an  epoch  in  his  spirit- 
ual life."  Who  shall  say  how  far  back  these  in- 
fluences which  determine  the  reader's  tone  and 
emphasis  have  their  source  ?  He  was  an  old  man, 
and  had  for  many  years  been  known  as  himself  an 


THE   READING   OF  THE  SCRIPTURES  147 

admirable  reader  of  the  Bible  in  public  worship, 
when,  with  tears  rolling  down  his  cheeks,  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  read  to  his  family  the  matchless, 
immortal  story  of  Joseph,  as  he  first  heard  it  from 
his  Aunt  Esther,  when  he  was  only  a  young  boy, 
and  her  wonderful  readings  from  the  Bible  in  his 
father's  parsonage  made  many  an  hour  radiant  and 
cheerful.^  At  the  opposite  extreme  to  the  Puritan 
manse  is  the  English  rectory  ;  but  there  a  visitor 
recalls  Sydney  Smith  taking  down  the  Bible  from 
the  book-case  that  he  might  illustrate  the  beauty  of 
its  style  from  the  Psalms,  and  a  worshiper  in  his 
church  remembers  his  powerful  countenance  and 
melodious  voice  as  his  reading  of  the  lessons  for 
the  day  became  "  a  commentary  on  every  word, 
bringing  out  the  rich,  deep  meaning  of  the  sacred 
page."  ^ 

Note.  That  this  important  part  of  the  public 
worship  of  God  has  received  less  attention  than  it 
deserves  is  in  a  measure  accounted  for  when  we 
remember  that  the  reading  of  the  Bible  without 
note  or  comment  was  practically  prohibited  by  the 
early  settlers  in  New  England  and  by  their  descend- 
ants. "  It  cannot  be  proved,"  says  Increase  Mather, 
"  that  Dumb  Reading,  or  public  Reading  of  the 
Scriptures  without  any  Explication  or  Exhortation, 
is  part  of  the  Pastoral  Office."'  The  teacher  in 
the  meeting-house  in  these  primitive  times  read  a 


'  Barrow's  "  Beecher,"  p.  22. 

-  Sydney  Smith,  "  Memoirs,"  pp.  218,  25;;. 

^  Dr.  Williston  Walker,  "  The  Congregational  Idea  in  Worship,"  p.  15. 


148  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

passage  of  the  Bible,  expounding  it  section  by  sec- 
tion. "  This  form  of  Scripture  reading  was  deemed 
the  only  fitting  method  by  the  New  England  fathers, 
reading  without  comment  being  supposed  to  savor 
of  the  liturgical  usages  from  which  they  had  fled."  ' 

II.  We  proceed  to  give  some  Directions  for  the 
Public  Reading  of  the  Bible. 

I.  It  should  go  without  saying  that  there  ought 
to  be  careful  preparation  in  private  for  this  public 
exercise. 

(i)  By  all  means  read  both  the  Authorized  and 
the  Revised  versions,  and  compare  the  two.  There 
are  places  in  which  the  later  version  should  be 
used,  A  pulpit  Bible  with  the  two  in  parallel 
columns  will  be  of  service  ;  and  in  your  prepara- 
tory study  of  the  passage  to  be  read  you  can  de- 
termine where  to  substitute  the  one  version  for  the 
other.  For  the  present,  however,  it  seems  wiser, 
as  a  geiieral  rule,  to  keep  to  the  older  version.  It 
has  still  the  ear  and  heart  of  the  people.  It  rarely 
differs  so  materially  from  the  Revised  version  as  to 
necessitate  much  correction.  It  will  always  remain 
incomparable  in  its  noble  diction  ;  and  by  virtue  of 
its  musical  and  sonorous  English  it  is  better  adapted 
for  public  reading  than  any  other  book  in  our  litera- 
ture. Moreover,  every  year  that  passes  bears 
witness  that  the  Revised  version  is  neither  the  final 
nor  the  generally  accepted  rendering. 

(2)  In  private,  and  with  due  deliberation,  read 
the  selected  passages  for  your  own  private  profit. 

'  Ibid.,  p.  238. 


THE  READING   OF  THE  SCRIPTURES  149 

This,  which  was  one  secret  of  the  impressive  read- 
ing of  Frederick  Denison  Maurice  and  of  John 
Henry  Newman,  will  save  the  public  exercise  from 
formality  and  lifelessness.  The  passage  will  be- 
come to  you,  when  you  read  it  before  the  people, 
what  Melanchthon  said  Luther's  words  were,  "  born 
not  on  his  lips  but  in  his  soul." 

(3)  Read  aloud  when  alone  with  a  view  to  intel- 
ligent and  impressive  reading  in  public.  Avoid 
being  either  too  conversational  or  too  dramatic. 
Everywhere  objectionable,  the  mere  elocutionist  is 
especially  so  here.  Although  it  lacked  in  variety  l 
and  perhaps  merited  the  frank  criticism  of  a  trans- 
Atlantic  visitor  that  it  was  "  not  of  a  kind  which 
would  pass  muster  on  our  American  platform," 
"the  reading  of  Tennyson  was  considered  by  good 
judges  as  almost  perfect,  because  it  had  the  supreme 
merit  of  entire  distinctness,  of  true  emphasis,  of 
fine  intonation,  and  of  perfect  naturalness."^  To 
a  mouthing  clergyman,  John  Kemble  said  :  "  Allow 
me,  sir,  to  advise  you  when  you  read  the  Scrip- 
tures, or  any  other  book,  to  think  more  of  what 
you  read  than  how  you  read  it."  And  Archbishop 
Whately,  with  characteristic  bluntness,  told  a  cleri- 
cal friend  who  insisted  on  eliciting  from  him  his 
opinion  as  to  his  rendering  of  the  church  service, 
that  there  were  only  two  parts  where  he  read  well, 
and  those  the  words  "  Here  endeth  the  First  Les- 
son," and  "  Here  endeth  the  Second  Lesson."  "  I 
mean,"  added  he,  "that  these  parts  you  read  in 

1  F.  W.  Farrar. 


150  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

your  own  natural  voice  and  manner,  which  are  very 
good  ;  the  rest  is  all  artificial  and  assumed." 

Much  may  be  learned  from  the  pains  which  the 
actor  and  the  public  reader  take  with  their  parts. 
Sarah  Siddons  invariably  read  over  the  play  on  the 
morning  of  her  performance,  and  never  failed  to 
discover  some  fine  point  which  had  hitherto  escaped 
her ;  and  Charles  Dickens,  when  giving  a  reading 
from  one  of  his  own  novels,  used  to  repeat  it  to 
himself  often  twice  a  day,  and  with  just  as  much 
care  as  when  he  stood  before  his  audience  at  night. 
"  He  felt  that  nothing  could  be  done  well,  that  no 
great  perfection  could  be  reached,  without  taking 
pains." 

(4)  Read  in  private  with  a  view  to  mastering  the 
precise  thought  in  the  original.  Find  the  antithe- 
sis, not  only  in  the  words  and  sentences,  but  also 
in  the  thought.  The  late  Dr.  Deems,  of  New  York, 
once  wrote  :  "A  man  who  can  read  properly  the 
first  chapter  of  John's  Gospel,  can  read  properly 
anything  in  the  Bible.  The  first  verse  is  crucial. 
I  confess  to  have  spent  a  quarter  of  a  century  in 
striving  to  read  it,  but  I  am  not  now  so  confident  of 
my  reading  as  to  insist  upon  it."  Pay  special  at- 
tention to  emphasis.  Emphasis  is  exposition.  When 
Ezra  read  in  the  book  of  the  law  "distinctly," 
whether  he  interpreted  its  meaning  or  not,  he  made 
the  people  understand  by  clear  utterance  and  intel- 
ligent emphasis.  Of  Bishop  Mcllvaine,  of  Ohio, 
one  of  his  hearers,  recalling  after  many  years  how 
when  a  lad  he  listened  to  him,  says  :  "  His  reading 


THE   READING   OF  THE   SCRIPTURES  151 

was  interpretation  in  tlie  highest  degree,  hitlection, 
emphasis,  and  chastened  tone,  rightly  divided  the 
word  of  truth,  illumined  obscure  passages,  and 
brought  to  light  the  hidden  riches  of  secret  places." 
All  this  does  not  come  by  a  sudden  flash  of  intelli- 
gence during  the  public  reading.  It  may  be  well 
to  mark  passages  in  your  study  Bible  with  the 
appropriate  emphasis. 

2.  Arrange  the  order  of  service  so  as  to  have 
sufficient  reading  of  the  Scriptures.  The  people 
are  perishing  for  lack  of  the  Bible.  The  book  of 
which  a  secular  journal  can  write,  "  its  variety  of 
style,  its  marvelous  felicity  of  phrase,  and  its  dig- 
nity and  impressiveness  early  entered  into  the  very 
fibre  of  our  literary  expression,"  ^  is  the  book  which 
we  are  not  only  permitted  but  bound  to  read  in 
public.  At  a  time  when  "the  systematic  reading 
of  it  in  the  family  has  much  declined,  and  has 
already  largely  disappeared  from  the  schoolroom," 
it  is  all  the  more  incumbent  upon  us  to  make  the 
ear  familiar  with  the  treasures  of  this  greatest  land- 
mark of  the  English  tongue.  Apart  entirely  from 
its  literary  excellence,  and  of  course  of  far  greater 
moment,  is  the  fact  that  the  Scriptures  are  the 
word  of  God.  Herein  lies  the  superior  authority  of 
the  Bible  over  the  sermon.  If  any  part  of  the  serv- 
ice has  to  be  curtailed,  do  not  let  this  part  suffer. 
There  should  certainly  be  two  readings  from  the 
Bible  in  the  morning  service,  besides  the  responsive 
reading  of  the  Psalms. 

'  "  The  Nation,"  Nov.  16,  i8gg,  p.  369. 


152  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

3.  Do  full  justice  also  to  the  whole  Bible.  Keep 
a  list  of  the  passages  which  you  read.  See  that 
you  deal  fairly  by  less  known  parts.  The  oc- 
casional use  of  the  Lectionary  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  may  be  recommended.  A  minister  return- 
ing from  his  vacation,  after  worshiping  in  various 
churches,  found  himself  wondering  whether  the 
Old  Testament  consisted  wholly  of  the  Psalms  and 
the  prophecies  of  Isaiah.  The  pulpit  Bible  of  a 
very  doctrinal  preacher  of  a  past  generation,  after 
being  in  use  twenty-seven  years  told  its  tale  of 
use  and  abuse.  "  The  first  part  remained  as  clean 
as  on  the  day  it  left  the  press  ;  the  Psalms  and 
Isaiah  had  certainly  been  turned  over  many  times  ; 
the  Gospels  must  have  been  often  read  ;  but  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  was  fairly  worn  through 
constant  reference,  and  the  eighth  chapter  was  in 
holes."  ^  This  was  for  that  minister  to  have  left 
undone  the  things  that  he  should  have  done.  The 
whole  counsel  of  God  had  not  been  declared. 

4.  The  passages  to  be  read  should  be  selected 
with  a  view  to  the  entire  service. 

There  is  no  need  to  read  the  chapter  from  which 
the  text  is  to  be  taken,  unless  it  will  be  needed  in 
the  expository  part  of  the  discourse  ;  or  unless  it  be 
a  chapter  with  which  the  congregation  is  not  suffi- 
ciently familiar.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  often  better 
to  select  two  independent  passages,  one  from  the 
Old  Testament  and  one  from  the  New,  illustrating 
the  subject  of  the  discourse,  but  not  necessarily 

1  Dr.  John  Howard  Hinton,  London. 


THE   READING   OF  THE  SCRIPTURES  1 53 

containing  the  text.  This  will  impress  upon  the 
people  alike  the  scope  and  the  unity  of  Scripture. 
Occasionally  it  is  profitable  to  make  a  selection  of 
from  ten  to  twenty  passages  in  the  Bible  throwing 
light  upon  the  theme  of  your  sermon.  Of  a  Lon- 
don preacher,  an  occasional  worshiper  notes  :  "  The 
reading  of  Scripture  consisted  of  a  selection  of  Paul's 
prayers  from  the  Epistles.  '  Paul,'  said  he,  '  is  al- 
ways good,  but  Paul  on  his  knees  is  at  his  best. 
This  is  a  little  constellation  of  prayers  ;  if  you  study 
them  well  you  will  know  what  to  pray  for.'  " 

5.  Take  this  part  of  the  service  yourself.  You 
are  under  no  obligation  to  invite  into  the  pulpit  any 
minister  who  happens  to  be  present.  If  he  is  wise 
he  will  prefer  to  be  allowed  to  remain  in  the  pew  ; 
if  he  is  not  wise  that  is  the  best  place  for  him. 
And  certainly  this  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  for 
which  we  are  presuming  that  you  have  made  care- 
ful preparation,  should  not  be  thrust  without  pre- 
vious warning  into  strange  hands.  Nor  do  we 
recommend  the  responsive  reading  of  the  Bible. 
Even  the  Psalms  ought  to  be  sung  and  not  read. 
But  referring  now  to  other  books  of  Scripture,  we 
would  urge  that  no  good  end  is  gained  by  their ' 
being  read  responsively.  The  sense  is  broken,, 
and  often  lost,  and  attention  is  distracted  from  the 
word  to  the  readers. 

6.  While  reading,  concentrate  your  thought  upon 
the  work  in  which  you  are  engaged.  Mr.  Beecher 
once  found  that  he  had  unconsciously  read  nearly 
a  whole  chapter  of  the  Bible  in  the  course  of  his 


154        -  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

service,  while  at  the  same  time  he  had  been  led 
off  into  an  intense  study  of  the  sermon  that  was  to 
come  soon  after  it.^  hi  avoiding  this,  your  devout 
preparation  in  private  for  this  part  of  public  worship 
will  be  very  helpful.  And  as  you  read  remember 
that  it  is  God's  word  to  which  the  people  are  lis- 
tening. For  this  reason  it  is  held  by  some  that  the 
eyes  of  the  minister  should  never  be  lifted  from  the 
page  which  he  is  reading.  Not  even  by  the  slight- 
est glance  or  gesture  must  he  divert  attention  from 
the  message  to  the  messenger. 

7.  Never  fail  to  announce  the  passage  which  you 
are  about  to  read.  The  announcement  after  the 
reading  is  unmeaning.  Your  object  should  be  to 
induce  the  people  to  have  Bibles  and  use  them. 
Announce  in  the  right  order,  first  the  book,  then  the 
chapter,  and  then,  where  necessary,  the  verses 
which  are  to  be  read.  Announce  in  good  English, 
and  with  the  true  emphasis.  It  is  not  correct  to 
say  "  First  Corinthians."  Time  is  not  so  precious 
that  you  are  forced  to  be  ungrammatical.  Rather 
say,  "  The  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians."  An- 
nounce the  reading  as  you  would  any  other  matter 
of  interest.  Look  up  ;  speak  up  ;  pause  after  an- 
nouncing, and  before  you  begin  to  read.  Do  not 
commence  until  there  is  perfect  quiet.  Let  no  one 
be  shown  to  a  seat  while  God  is  speaking  through 
his  word. 

8.  Use,  if  you  think  well,  some  short  form  when 
you  introduce  and  when  you  conclude  the  reading. 

1  Abbott's  "  Beecher,"  p.  aog. 


THE   READING   OF  THE   SCRIPTURES  1 55 

In  introducing  it  a  brief  invitation  is  seemly  :  "  Tlie 
morning  lesson  will  be  found,"  or  "  Let  us  read  from 
God's  word";  concluding,  the  words  "The  Lord 
bless  to  us  the  reading  of  his  word  "  form  a  suitable 
prayer.  By  all  means  be  reverent  in  the  way  in 
which  you  open  and  close  the  book.  Of  Summer- 
field,  the  young  minister  whose  early  death  took 
from  the  pulpit  one  of  its  most  promising  preachers, 
it  is  said  that  "  his  manner  of  laying  hand  upon 
the  Bible  increased  the  observer's  reverence  for 
the  inspired  volume." 

9.  Occasionally  it  may  be  well  to  expound  the 
portion  of  Scripture  which  you  read.  As  we  have 
seen,  many  of  the  early  churches  of  New  England 
would  not  tolerate  the  reading  of  the  Bible  in  their 
pulpits  without  such  comment.  "That  state  of 
feeling,"  says  Professor  Phelps,  "led  to  a  vast 
amount  of  exposition  of  the  Bible  outside  of  ser- 
mons." Much  can  be  said  for  and  against  the 
practice.  In  favor  of  it,  we  should  urge  that  when 
words  have  become  at  all  obscure,  or  when  any 
statement  needs  a  few  sentences  to  make  the  mean- 
ing clear,  the  practice  is  to  be  commended.  Should 
you  be  the  one  in  a  thousand  who  is  able  to  put  in 
short  and  pithy  sentences  the  gist  of  a  whole  pas- 
sage, if,  unlike  the  majority  of  preachers,  your  mind 
and  your  style  be  more  favorable  to  compression 
than  to  expansion,  then  by  all  means  expound. 
Your  gift  may  lie  there.  Spurgeon's  exposition  was 
often  superior  to  his  sermon  ;  and  he  himself  said 
that  as  a  rule  he  spent  more  time  over  it.     But 


156  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

how  rare  is  the  art !  It  will  scarcely  be  questioned 
that  as  a  rule  expositions  fail  to  expound.  "It  is 
far  better,"  said  Luther,  "to  see  with  our  own 
eyes  than  with  the  eyes  of  other  people."  A  frank 
if  confused  preacher  in  a  Western  State,  after  read- 
ing a  verse  over  which  there  had  been  much  con- 
troversy, startled  his  congregation  by  observing  : 
"  Brethren,  I  won't  comment  on  this  passage  ;  I  am 
afraid  1  might  make  it  worse  than  it  is."  All  nerv- 
ousness apart,  it  must  be  owned  that  few  ministers 
make  the  passage  any  better,  Oftener  than  not 
they  darken  counsel  by  words,  and  confuse  what 
would  otherwise  be  clear.  Certainly  the  expositor 
breaks  the  continuity  of  the  sense.  What  other 
writers  would  survive  such  treatment  .-'  How  irri- 
tating it  would  be  were  Shakespeare  or  Bacon  or 
Hooker  or  Ruskin  bidden  stand  aside  while  in  the 
full  flow  of  their  great  sentences,  that  their  words 
might  be  inflated  by  irrelevant  amplifications.  There 
are  expounders  of  the  Bible  in  the  pulpit  who  some- 
how recall  what  Martin  Luther  says  in  another 
connection  :  "  I  am  a  great  enemy  to  flies.  When 
I  have  a  good  book  they  flock  upon  it,  and  parade 
up  and  down  upon  it,  and  soil  it."  It  was  the 
prince  of  pulpit  expounders  himself  who  closed  his 
running  comment  one  morning  with  the  confession  : 
"  I  feel  the  feebleness  of  my  exposition,  but  I  also 
feel  the  strength  of  the  love  of  God.  Well,  that  is 
right,  for  we  do  not  wish  to  taste  the  cup  when  we 
drink  the  waters  of  eternal  life."^ 

*  C.  H.  Spurgeon. 


IX 
MUSIC  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SERVICE 


SUMMARY 


Preliminary  Counsels. 

1.  Let  the  minister  liimself  appreciate  the  importance  of  the 

subject. 
(i)  The  instinct  to  express  devout  emotion  in  song  is  very 
general. 

(2)  The  power  of  song  has  been  constantly  felt  in  great 
religious  movements. 

(3)  The  benefit  of  musical  culture  to  a  congregation  is 
very  great. 

(4)  The  service  as  a  whole  is  much  affected  by  the  way 
in  which  this  part  of  it  is  rendered. 

2.  Let  the  minister  take  a  personal  interest  in  the  music  of 

his  church. 
Why  has  church  music  been  neglected,  despised,  or  even 

condemned  ? 
(i)  From  prejudice:  a.  Ecclesiastical  ;  b.  Doctrinal. 
(2)  From  ignorance  or  indifference. 
Note.     The  minister  and  the  choir. 

3.  Let  the  minister  educate  himself  in  this  subject. 

( 1 )  Study  lyrical  poetry. 

Why  so  few  great  poets  have  written  hymns. 

(2)  Learn  something  of  the  various  kinds  of  music. 

(3)  Study  the  literature  of  hymns. 

(4)  Examine  and  compare  hymn-books. 
{5)  Make  a  list  of  the  best  hymns. 

(6)  if  possible  cultivate  a  taste  for  singing. 

4.  Let  the  minister  endeavor  to  interest  his  congregation  in 

music, 
(i)  The  singing  school  may  be  helpful. 

(2)  Occasionally  lecture  on  the  subject. 

(3)  Make  it  prominent  in  the  public  service. 


IX 

MUSIC   IN  THE   PUBLIC  SERVICE 

We  now  proceed  to  consider  the  musical  part  of 
the  public  service.  The  time  has  passed  in  which  by 
this  was  meant  only  the  singing  of  hymns.  To- 
day, giving  a  wide  range  to  the  word  "  music  "  in 
connection  with  the  worship  of  God,  we  must  in- 
clude not  alone  congregational  music, — meaning  by 
that  the  singing  of  hymns  by  all  the  people, — but 
also  concerted  music,  such  as  is  performed  exclu- 
sively by  members  of  the  choir  ;  and  instrumental 
music,  such  as  the  organ  voluntary  and  accompani- 
ment, hi  dealing  with  this  branch  of  worship,  we 
will  first  offer  some  general  Preliminary  Counsels, 
and  then  discuss  more  at  length  the  hymn  as  a  dis- 
tinct and  important  feature  in  the  public  service. 

I.  As  one  preliminary  counsel,  I  would  urge  that 
the  minister  himself  learn  to  appreciate  the  impor- 
tance of  the  subject.  Writing  to  a  friend  of  his  who 
had  enriched  the  psalmody  of  the  church,  Dr.  Dale 
said,  "  For  myself,  I  feel  that  to  give  people  hymns 
to  sing  is  one  of  the  noblest  services  which  a  man 
can  render  to  the  church."^  The  minister  in  his 
measure  does  for  his  congregation  what  the  hymn- 
writer  does  for  the  whole   church.  \The  thought 

>  "  Life  of  R.  W.  Dale,  D.  D.,  p.  227. 

159 


l6o  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

and  care  which  he  bestows  on  the  selection  of  a 
hymn  or  of  an  anthem  may  influence  his  fellow- 
worshipers  almost  as  powerfully  as  his  prayers  or 
sermons. 

Such  considerations  as  the  following  may  serve  to 
enforce  this  : 

(i)  The  instinct  to  express  devout  emotion  in 
song  is  very  general.  Listen,  for  instance,  to  the 
outburst  of  Basil  :'  "  Psalmody  is  the  calm  of  the 
soul,  the  response  of  the  spirit,  the  arbiter  of  peace. 
It  silences  the  wave,  and  Qpnciliates  the  whirlwind 
of  our  passions,  soothing  the  impetuous,  tempering 
the  unchaste.  Psalmody  repels  the  demons ;  it 
lures  the  ministry  of  angels  ;  a  weapon  of  defense 
in  nightly  terrors,  a  respite  from  daily  toil.  To  the 
infant  it  is  a  presiding  genius  ;  to  manhood  a  crown 
of  glory  ;  a  balm  of  comfort  to  the  aged."  Or  re- 
call the  pathetic  confession  of  Augustine:  "Yet 
again,  when  I  remember  the  tears  1  shed  at  the 
psalmody  of  Thy  church,  in  the  beginning  of  my 
renewed  faith  ;  and  how,  at  this  time,  I  am  moved 
not  with  the  singing,  but  with  the  things  sung, 
when  they  are  sung  with  a  clear  voice  and  modula- 
tion most  suitable,  I  acknowledge  the  great  use  of 
this  institution."  ^ 

We  can  understand  the  glowing  enthusiasm  of  a 
preacher  who  was  also  a  poet,  when  he  claimed 
that  of  the  three  correlatives  in  public  worship, 
Preaching,  Prayer,  and  Praise,  the  last  is  the  great- 
est.    "  Preaching  stands  related  to  faith,  and  when 

1  B.  c.  A.  D.  330  2  "Confessions,"  Book  X..  §  33. 


MUSIC   IN  THE   PUBLIC   SERVICE  i6l 

faith  shall  be  lost  in  sight,  preaching  may  be  dis- 
pensed with  ;  Prayer  stands  related  to  hope,  and 
when  hope  shall  be  finished  in  fruition,  prayer  may 
be  superseded  ;  but  Praise  stands  related  to  charity 
— and  it  shall  never  fail.  Love  and  song  shall  be 
eternal." ' 

(2)  Your  study  of  church  history  may  further 
remind  you  that  the  power  of  song  has  constantly 
been  felt  in  great  religious  movements.  You  will 
remember  how  Chrysostom  developed  the  psalmody 
of  his  own  church  that  so  he  might  counteract  the 
influence  of  Arius,  who  had  put  songs  embodying 
his  views  of  Christian  doctrine  into  the  mouths  of 
sailors  and  millers  and  pilgrims  ;  and  how  with  the 
same  weapon  Ephraem  Syrus  fought  the  Gnostics, 
and  Augustine  the  Donatists  ;  and  how  the  Cru- 
saders' hymns  "  rolled  forth  their  truths  upon  the 
Oriental  air,  while  a  thousand  horses'  hoofs  kept 
time  below,  and  ten  thousand  palm  leaves  whispered 
and  kept  time  above."  ■^  You  listen  to  Luther  as 
with  his  noble  version  of  the  forty-sixth  Psalm  he 
flings  defiances  at  his  enemies  ;  or  as  in  his  pleasant 
garden  in  Wittenberg  he  takes  his  lute,  and  con- 
fesses that  to  him  music  is  "the  best  solace  for  a 
sad  and  sorrowful  mind."'  The  opponents  of  the 
Reformation  did  not  exaggerate  when  they  de- 
clared, "  Luther  has  done  us  more  harm  by  his 
songs  than  by  his  sermons"  ;  and  Coleridge  was 
no  doubt  right  in  claiming  that  they  "  Did  as  much 

'  Robertson  of  Irvine,  "  Life,"  p.  g?. 

*  Dale,  "Yale  Lectures,"  p.  272.  ^  H.  W.  Beecher. 

L 


l62  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

to  advance  the  Protestant  faith  as  even  his  transla- 
tion of  the  Bible."  ^  Not  less  did  Calvin  estimate 
the  power  of  psalmody,  when,  while  insisting  that 
the  ear  should  not  be  more  attentive  to  the  har- 
mony of  the  sounds  than  the  soul  to  the  hidden 
meaning  of  the  words,  he  decreed  that  in  Geneva 
music  should  be  taught  to  the  children  in  the  day 
school,  so  that  when  they  had  learnt  the  psalm 
thoroughly  there,  it  might  be  sung  heartily  in  the 
public  worship  on  Sunday.  The  foremost  champion 
in  America  of  the  theology  which  is  associated 
with  the  name  of  Calvin  is  Jonathan  Edwards,  and 
in  writing  of  the  great  revival  in  Northampton, 
Massachusetts,  in  1735,  he  testifies  that  "there 
has  been  scarce  any  part  of  divine  worship  wherein 
good  men  amongst  us  have  had  grace  so  drawn 
forth  and  their  hearts  so  lifted  up  in  the  ways  of 
God,  as  in  singing  his  praises,"^  in  the  last  cen- 
tury alike  the  Calvinist  and  the  Arminian  recog- 
nized the  power  of  song,  as  in  the  earlier  era  did 
the  Orthodox  and  the  Arian.  It  is  impossible  to 
say  how  much  Methodism  owes  to  its  hymn-book. 
The  fiercest  opposition  often  melted  away  before 
one  of  Charles  Wesley's  lyrics,  and  his  brother 
took  heart  when,  starting  for  the  interior  of  Ireland 
to  confront  furious  mobs  and  hostile  magistrates, 
he  heard  the  Methodist  tunes  whistled  by  Catholic 
children  on  his  route. ^  Episcopalian  though  he 
was,  Walter  Scott  discouraged  the  proposal  to  mod- 

1  Guizot,  "St.  Louis  and  Calvin,"  p.  265. 
'  Allen's  "  Edwards,"  p.  143.       ^  Stevens'  "  History  of  Methodism,"  p.  2og. 


MUSIC   IN  THE   PUBLIC  SERVICE  163 

ernize  the  psalmody  so  dear  to  the  people  of  his 
native  land.  "  They  contain  the  very  words  which 
were  spoken  and  sung  by  the  fathers  of  the  Ref- 
ormation, sometimes  in  the  wilderness,  sometimes 
in  fetters,  sometimes  at  the  stake."*  How  closely 
allied  in  evangelistic  work  are  the  rousing  address 
and  the  stimulating  song  will  be  apparent  to  any 
one  of  us  who  will  recall  the  other  name  which 
rises  at  once  by  the  law  of  association  in  connection 
with  that  of  Mr.  Moody.  To  Mr.  Sankey,  and  to 
many  others  who  have  in  our  generation  illustrated 
the  ministry  of  music  in  the  service  of  Christ,  be- 
long in  some  substantial  measure  the  words  which 
Dr.  Austin  Phelps  addressed  to  the  author  of  "  My 
faith  looks  up  to  Thee  "  :  "I  cannot  but  congratu- 
late you  on  the  eternal  inheritance  which  a  man 
receives  in  being  made  the  author  of  one  good 
hymn  which  lives  in  the  hearts  of  God's  people."  * 
That  to  the  devil  do  not  belong  the  best  songs  and 
tunes,  the  religious  movements  of  our  own  time 
bear  abundant  witness.  They  have  arisen  and  ad- 
vanced and  conquered  on  tides  of  popular  melody  ; 
illustrating  if  not  always  with  taste  yet  rarely  with- 
out effect,  the  favorite  saying  of  holy  George  Her- 
bert as  he  prepared  to  sing  to  his  viol,  "  Religion 
does  not  banish  mirth,  but  only  moderates  and  sets 
rules  to  it. "^  "The  holy  alliance  between  sweet 
sounds  and  a  saintly  life,"  was  one  which  John 
Stuart  Blackie    loved   to  proclaim,  as  he   insisted 

'  "  Scott's  Journal,"  p.  704. 
2  "  Life  of  Austin  Phelps,  D.  D.,"  p.  216.     ^  Walton's  "  Life  of  Herbert." 


164  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

that  "  no  sermons  ever  preached  so  powerfully  bring 
forth  the  fullness  of  devout  emotion  in  the  soul  as 
the  oratorios,  anthems,  and  hymns  of  our  great 
composers."  ^ 

(3)  This  suggests  that  the  benefit  of  musical 
culture  to  a  congregation  is  very  great,  it  refines, 
elevates,  and  in  the  most  wholesome  way  diverts 
the  mind.  "  There  are,"  as  Dr.  Stalker  says,  "three 
delights  in  praise.  The  foundation  of  praise  is  the 
thought  or  sentiment  ;  the  second  element  is  poetry; 
music  is  the  third."  The  singing  school  in  the 
New  England  village  did  a  work  for  which  the 
traveling  minstrel  troupe  and  even  the  struggling 
lecture  course  offer  an  unworthy  substitute.  A 
reformation  in  taste  as  well  as  in  morals  was  regis- 
tered in  Kidderminster,  when  under  the  powerful 
ministry  of  Richard  Baxter  the  streets  of  an  even- 
ing were  full  of  the  sounds  of  hymn-singing,  float- 
ing from  open  door  or  casement.  Whole  districts  in 
the  remoter  parts  of  England  have  been  transformed 
by  the  introduction  of  good  congregational  hymns 
among  the  people  ;  and  the  minister  w'.iO  knows 
his  opportunity  has  often  been  able  to  reinforce  his 
choir  from  the  musical  talent — almost  amounting  at 
times  to  genius — which  during  his  pastoral  visits  he 
has  discovered  in  the  homes  of  his  flock. 

(4)  Obviously,  also,  the  service  as  a  whole  is 
much  affected  by  the  way  in  which  this  part  of  the 
service  is  rendered.  A  hymn  or  anthem  will  very 
likely   either  deepen    or   dissipate   the   impression 

1  "  Life  of  Prof.  Blackie,"  by  M.  A.  Kennedy,  p.  258. 


MUSIC   IN  THE  PUBLIC   SERVICE  165 

made  by  the  prayer,  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures, 
or  the  sermon.  There  are  sensitive  people  in  every 
congregation  who  have  suffered  very  much  as  did 
Longfellow  when  he  wrote  in  his  diary  :  "  The 
choir  at  church  to-day  absolutely  howled,  instead 
of  singing  ;  all  harsh  and  out  of  tune.  Important ! 
but  who  likes  to  sit  in  those  narrow  pews,  with  his 
knees  crooked,  and  then  have  every  nerve  in  him 
quiver  in  agony  ?  "^  As  for  the  minister  himself, 
his  experience  will  be  that  of  the  congregation,  only 
with  an  added  intensity.  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
never  failed  to  recognize  the  service  which  his  or- 
ganist rendered  him,  "  by  his  ability  to  express  and 
interpret  religious  ernotion,"  and  he  claimed  that 
"  no  efficiency  in  the  leader  of  the  choir,  or  in  the 
machinery  could  atone  for  the  lack  of  appreciation 
of  the  devotional  element  in  music."  ^  Many  a 
time  the  sympathetic  rendering  of  a  solo,  or  the 
enthusiastic  singing  of  a  hymn  opened  the  flood- 
gates of  the  orator's  heart,  and  a  sermon  of  rare 
power  and  beauty  followed. 

2.  As  a  second  counsel  I  would  advise  you  to 
take  personal  interest  in  the  music  of  your  church. 

Why,  let  us  ask,  has  this  part  of  the  public  wor- 
ship of  God  been  so  often  neglected,  despised,  or 
even  condemned  }  Sometimes  from  prejudice,  and 
sometimes  from  ignorance  and  indifference. 

(i)  The  prejudice  on  the  part  of  many  good 
people  against  music  as  an  aid  to  devotion  can  be 
traced  to  more  than  one  source,     a.  At  times  it  is 

1 "  Life,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  296.         2  Scoville's  "  Life  of  Beecher,"  p.  600. 


l66  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

ecclesiastical.  For  centuries  we  have  associated  an 
elaborate  ritual  and  tine  music  with  the  Church  of 
Rome.  The  chant,  the  antiphonal  rendering  of  the 
psalms,  the  Te  Deum,  the  Gloria  Patri,  have  for 
this  reason  been  looked  at  with  suspicion,  h.  Then, 
again,  this  prejudice  has  had  its  roots  in  doctrinal 
convictions.  Since  the  congregation  consists  of 
converted  and  unconverted  persons,  it  has  been 
said,  it  is  not  right  that  hymns  sacred  to  the  use  of 
believers  should  be  sung  by  all  in  common.  Pushed 
to  its  logical  extreme  this  objection,  of  course,  would 
exclude  the  common  use  of  prayer,  of  the  Bible, 
and  of  public  worship  itself. 

Further,  it  has  been  objected  that  the  singing  of 
hymns  has  no  warrant  in  the  New  Testament.  The 
constitution  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church 
declares  that  the  use  of  the  Psalms  in  the  worship 
of  God  both  public  and  private  "  to  the  end  of  the 
world  "  is  in  accordance  with  his  will,  and  that 
these  songs  "should  be  employed  to  the  exclusion 
of  the  devotional  compositions  of  uninspired  men." 
"Human  hymns"  are  only  slowly  winning  their 
way  into  many  of  the  remoter  Presbyterian  churches 
in  Scotland,  and  the  advance  of  the  organ  has  been 
slower  still.  Among  the  many  controversies  of  the 
seventeenth  century  in  which  the  English  Baptists 
engaged, — often  little  to  their  profit, — this  question 
had  a  prominent  place:  "Whether  the  singing  of 
psalms  in  public  worship  was  according  to  the  mind 
of  Christ."^     For  twenty  years  Benjamin   Keach 

1  Dr.  Culross,  "  Memoir  of  Hansard  Knollys."  p.  102. 


MUSIC   IN  THE   PUBLIC  SERVICE  167 

(whose  church  was  the  precursor  of  that  which  a 
century  and  a  half  later  became  famous  under  the 
ministry  of  Mr.  Spurgeon),  contended  for  the  use 
of  a  hymn  at  tlie  communion  and  another  on  the 
dismissal  of  the  congregation  ;  and  he  only  won  the 
day  at  the  cost  of  a  painful  schism  which  carried 
away  some  of  the  most  conscientious  members  of 
the  fellowship.^  The  schism  was  healed  after  a 
time,  and  now  the  churches  no  longer  insist  that 
those  who  desire  to  make  melody  unto  the  Lord 
should  do  so  exclusively  in  the  heart ;  being  per- 
mitted, that  is,  to  sing  only  so  long  as  they  consent 
to  be  silent. 

(2)  More  often,  it  is  to  be  surmised,  the  neglect 
of  music  in  the  public  service  arises  from  ignorance 
and  indifference.  The  minister  (as  an  old  writer 
complains)  wants  "not  only  skill  but  good-will  to 
this  most  excelling  part  of  divine  service."^  He 
magnifies  preaching  at  the  expense  of  everything 
else.  This  is  due  in  a  great  measure  to  the  fact 
that  he  has  been  drilled  in  the  art  of  preaching  but 
not  in  the  art  of  singing.  Certainly  we  are  almost 
at  the  opposite  extreme  to  that  of  Martin  Luther 
when  he  declared  that  "we  should  not  ordain 
young  men  as  preachers  unless  they  have  been 
well  exercised  in  music."  Hitherto  little  or  no  at- 
tention has  been  paid  to  musical  instruction  in  the 
theological  seminaries.  Every  school  of  sacred 
learning  should  have  a  Chair  of  Ecclesiastical  Music 

^  Dr.  Stanford,  "  Homilies  on  Christian  Work,"  p.  64. 
-  Stanford's  "  Doddridge,"  p.  128. 


l68  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

and  Hymnology.  As  it  is,  there  is  only  too  much 
reason  for  the  charge  that  while  music  has  become 
a  most  important  agency  in  the  worship  of  the 
church,  the  average  minister,  as  a  rule,  knows  as 
little  about  the  art  as  the  proverbial  chairman  of 
its  music  committee.  It  is  our  present  purpose  to 
offer  some  suggestions  which  may  help  to  dissipate 
this  ignorance.  Before  proceeding  to  do  this,  a 
word  as  to  the  choir  will  be  in  place,  in  nothing 
does  the  minister  need  grace  more  than  in  his  man- 
agement of  the  choir,  and  in  his  influence  upon  it. 
In  the  country  church,  where  the  music  is  volun- 
tary, and  where  family  ties  are  many  and  close, 
this  is  especially  the  case.  The  words  of  David, 
spoken  when  the  wicked  were  before  him,  the 
young  country  pastor  learns  to  repeat  under  other 
circumstances:  "  1  was  dumb  with  silence,  I  held 
my  peace  even  from  good."'  No  doubt  Luther 
was  right  when  he  said  that  "  music  was  one  of 
the  finest  and  noblest  gifts  of  God  in  the  world  "  ; 
but  there  are  times  when  those  upon  whom  the 
gift  has  been  bestowed  are  a  sore  trial  to  patience. 
Yet  under  all  circumstances  you  will  do  well  to 
keep  before  the  choir  and  the  congregation  the  true 
and  noble  purpose  served  by  music.  Musicians, 
however  sensitive,  are  thankful  for  a  sympathetic, 
intelligent  interest  shown  by  the  minister  in  this 
part  of  the  service.  And  above  all  cherish  a  high 
tone  of  spiritual  life.  The  organist,  the  leader, 
every  member  of  the  choir,  should  be  a  Christian 

1  Ps.  39  :  2. 


MUSIC   IN  THE   PUBLIC  SERVICE  i6g 

person.  "  In  the  elder  days  of  the  church  when 
the  Presbyter  invested  with  his  singing  robes  the 
Psalmista,  he  said  to  him  :  '  See  that  what  thou 
singest  with  thy  mouth,  thou  believest  also  in  thy 
life.'"^  Especially  should  the  organist  be  a  man 
of  character  as  well  as  ability.  "  The  minister  and 
the  organist  should  be  as  captain  and  lieutenant  of 
a  regiment,  each  anxious  to  back  up  the  other, 
working  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  all  earnestness." 

It  may  be  well  to  advise  that  you  be  slow  to 
make  any  sweeping  change  in  the  music.  Choirs 
are  commonly  apt  to  be  thin-skinned.  Each  church 
has  its  own  peculiarities,  so  that  what  is  good  in 
one  place  may  be  the  reverse  of  good  in  another. 
Questions  of  expense,  also,  have  to  be  weighed, 
and  the  committee  on  music  must  be  controlled  in 
its  expenditure  by  the  committee  of  finance.  And 
you  will  do  well  to  remember  that  no  one  arrange- 
ment— a  precentor,  a  quartette,  a  chorus,  what- 
ever it  may  be — is  free  from  objections.  Your 
wiser  plan  in  most  cases,  is  to  take  what  you  find, 
and  gradually  to  modify  and  improve  it,  as  the  de- 
vout taste  of  the  congregation  rises  in  its  demands. 

3.  I  pass  on  to  the  next  counsel,  which  is,  that 
you  educate  yourself  in  this  matter  of  sacred  music. 

You  will  be  chiefly  concerned  with  the  choice  of 
hymns,  and  in  what  has  now  to  be  said  we  will 
confine  ourselves  in  the  main  to  them. 

(i)  Study  lyrical  poetry  and  decide  just  what 
constitutes  a  hymn.     The  opinion  of  one  of   the 

1  "Longfellow's  Life,"  Vol.  IL,  p.  106. 


I/O  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

latest  authorities  on  the  subject  that  "  a  hymn  is 
any  copy  of  verses  that  has  been  included  in  a 
hymn  book,  or  designed  or  adapted  for  congrega- 
tional worship,"  ^  may  well  be  challenged.  This 
criterion  furnishes  us  with  not  less  than  four  hun- 
dred thousand  hymns,  and  leaves  to  the  claims  of 
humble  prose  a  secondary  place  in  literature.  Over 
against  this  we  may  put  Augustine's  brief  but  in- 
clusive definition  of  a  hymn  as  "A  song  of  praise 
to  God."  Perhaps  it  will  be  adequate  for  our  pur- 
pose if  we  say  that  a  hymn  is  the  expression  of 
spiritual  emotion  in  lyrical  form,  adapted  for  sing- 
ing. Make  yourself  familiar  with  the  best  lyrical 
poems,  sacred  and  secular,  in  the  English  language. 
Some  good  collection,  such  as  F.  T.  Palgrave's 
"  Golden  Treasury,"  will  be  of  service  here.  It 
is  much  to  be  regretted,  but  little  to  be  wondered 
at,  that  so  few  great  poets  have  written  hymns. 
"For  music,"  said  Jenny  Lind,  "we  must  have 
one  feeling,  one  harmony."  For  the  good  hymn 
also  we  must  have  these,  but  in  a  yet  higher  sense 
than  she  intended.  The  poet's  affections  "  must 
be  kindled  by  the  fire  of  Christ's  love,  before  his 
soul  will  be  able  to  mount  up  toward  Christ  in  the 
music  and  the  service  of  God."  The  hymn  puts 
piety  before  art,  and  worship  is  its  first  essential. 
Those  hymns  which  the  heart  of  the  church  cher- 
ishes have  been  written  by  preachers  rather  than 
by  laureates.  Milton,  Addison,  Whittier,  Long- 
fellow, have  scarcely  given  us  half  a  dozen  which 

1  John  Julian,  M.  A.,  "  A  Dictionary  of  Hymnology,"     Preface. 


MUSIC   IN  THE   PUBLIC  SERVICE  171 

live,  and  to  Shakespeare,  Tennyson,  Browning, 
we  look  in  vain  for  even  this  small  number.  Cow- 
per  alone  among  the  poets  has  really  added  to  the 
substantial  treasury  of  sacred  song.  Honest  John 
Newton,  who  himself  sounded  the  depths  of  poor 
poetry  and  only  at  rare  intervals  rose  above  medi- 
ocrity, says  with  truth  :  "  There  is  a  style  and 
manner  suited  to  the  composition  of  hymns  which 
may  be  more  successfully,  or  at  least  more  easily, 
attained  by  a  versifier  than  a  poet.  Perspicuity, 
simplicity,  and  ease  should  be  chiefly  attended  to  ; 
and  the  imagery  and  coloring  of  poetry,  if  admitted 
at  all,  should  be  indulged  in  very  sparingly,  and 
with  great  judgment."  That  Newton  practised 
what  he  preached,  his  hymns  are  the  best  evidence. 
There  are  many  times  when  he  strikes  a  worthy 
level,  but  we  may  be  forgiven  if  we  prefer  the 
sober  prose  of  the  Bible  narrative  to  the  uneasy 
movement  of  his  rhyme  when  he  invites  us  to  sing  : 

Poor  Esau  repented  too  late 

That  once  he  his  birthright  despised, 

And  sold  for  a  morsel  of  meat 

What  could  not  too  highly  be  priz'd. 

(2)  You  will  do  well  to  learn  to  distinguish  the 
various  kinds  of  sacred  music  :  The  classical  kind 
as  represented  by  the  masses  and  other  sacred 
compositions  of  Haydn,  Mozart,  Beethoven  ;  the 
German,  as  we  have  it  in  their  noble  congregational 
chorals  ;  the  Anglican,  as  it  has  found  a  place  in 
our  service  in  anthems  and  chants  and  some  of  the 


172  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

most  solid  of  our  h\Tnn  tunes  ;  the  Puritan,  as  it 
still  holds  its  place  in  our  books  in  tunes  which 
while  not  rising  to  the  highest  level  of  psalmody 
have  nevertheless  struck  the  happy  mean  between 
the  over  artistic  and  the  merely  popular  ;  and  then 
the  popular  itself  as  it  occupies  an  uncertain  place 
in  permanent  church  music  in  the  tunes  associated 
with  the  Gospel  Songs  of  Moody  and  Sankey. 

(3)  The  literature  of  hymns  is  constantly  in- 
creasing ;  and  it  is  quite  worthy  of  study.  "  The 
Library  of  Religious  Poetry,"  by  Schaff  and  Gil- 
man  ;  "  The  Dictionary  of  Hymnology,"  by  Julian  ; 
Butterworth's  "Story  of  the  Hymns,"  and  "Story 
of  the  Tunes  "  ;  Hattleld's  "  Poets  of  the  Church  "  ; 
Miller's  "  Our  Hymns,  their  Authors  and  Origin  "  ; 
Duffield's  "  English  Hymns,"  and  "  Latin  Hymns," 
illustrate  this  branch  of  literature,  while  Lord  Sel- 
borne's  "  Book  of  Praise,"  Palgrave's  "Treasury 
of  Sacred  Song,"  and  Neale's  "  Hymns  of  the 
Eastern  Church,"  may  introduce  us  to  the  best 
h\'mns  of  ancient  and  modern  times. 

(4)  It  is  likely  that  in  the  course  of  youi  ministry 
you  will  find  it  necessary  to  change  the  hymn  book 
in  use  in  your  church.  For  this  reason  you  should 
keep  yourself  well  abreast  of  the  times  in  this  mat- 
ter. Such  a  change  should  not  be  made  unless  with 
good  cause,  but  when  it  is  decided  upon  you  should 
get  from  the  various  publishers  specimens  of  their 
books,  and  have  a  committee  appointed  (of  which 
you  may  be  one)  to  examine  them  carefully,  and 
report  when  a  conclusion  has  been  arrixed  at. 


MUSIC   IN  THE   PUBLIC  SERVICE  173 

(5)  Meanwhile,  make  for  yourself  a  list  of  the 
best  hymns.  Gladstone  considered  Cowper's  hymn, 
"Hark,  my  soul,  it  is  the  Lord,"  the  finest  in  the 
language  for  sustained  devotional  feeling  and  per- 
fection of  expression.  To  Dean  Stanley,  Jacob's 
sublime  experience  at  Peniel  found  its  best  ex- 
pression in  the  noble  hymn  of  Charles  Wesley, 
"  Come,  O  thou  Traveler  unknown  "  ;  Matthew 
Arnold,  within  an  hour  of  his  sudden  death,  de- 
clared that  Dr.  Watts,  in  "  When  I  survey  the  won- 
drous cross,"  had  reached  an  incomparable  degree 
of  excellence.  "  Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me,"  seems 
by  common  consent  to  be  the  hymn  to  which  the 
heart  of  Protestant  Christendom  gives  the  first 
place  in  its  affections.  The  subject  of  the  best 
hymns  is  a  good  one  for  a  prayer  meeting  talk  ; 
and  a  little  collection  by  W.  T.  Stead,  "  Hymns 
that  have  Helped,"  will  furnish  you  valuable  hints 
for  the  address. 

(6)  Besides  making  a  careful  study  of  the  sub- 
ject of  church  music,  it  will  be  well  that  you  culti- 
vate a  taste  for  singing.  At  all  exents  be  able  to 
raise  the  tune  in  an  emergency.  With  reasonable 
complacency  John  Comer,  the  Baptist  pioneer  in 
Rhode  Island  during  the  eighteenth  century,  writes 
in  his  diary  :  "  There  was  no  public  singing  till  I 
came  and  by  the  blessing  of  heaven  introduced  it." 
It  is  not,  however,  an  unmixed  advantage  when  a 
minister  is  a  connoisseur  of  music.  Dr.  Priestly 
wisely  deprecated  the  very  fine  ear  and  exquisite 
taste  in  men  who  must  inevitably  listen  to  so  much 


174  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

that  is  indifferent.  By  reason  of  a  fortunate  defi- 
ciency in  this  respect,  "they  will  be  more  easily 
pleased  and  be  less  apt  to  be  offended."  Singing 
is  one  of  the  cases  in  which  a  little  learning  is  not 
a  dangerous  thing.  It  is  mortifying  to  be  unable  to 
start  a  tune  at  a  prayer  meeting.  To  join  heartily 
in  the  singing  of  a  hymn  may  be  a  means  of  grace 
even  to  him  who  is  imperfectly  acquainted  with 
music,  although  it  must  have  been  humiliating  to 
the  English  bishop  who  is  like  Charles  Lamb, 
"sentimentally  disposed  to  harmony  but  yet  or- 
ganically incapable  of  a  tune,"  to  be  told  by  a 
working  man  at  an  evangelistic  meeting  when  he 
was  singing  with  lusty  though  discordant  enjoy- 
ment, "  Here,  dry  up,  minister ;  you're  spoiling  the 
show."  Recalling  a  Sunday  morning  service  at 
Northampton  during  the  long  ministry  of  Dr.  Dodd- 
ridge, John  Ryland  writes  :  "  The  doctor  himself 
gave  out  the  hymns,  but  could  not  set  the  tunes, 
for  he  could  never  change  two  notes."  ^  Dr.  Dodd- 
ridge's hymns  are  as  melodious  as  any  in  our 
language,  as  easy  and  musical  as  indued  is  the 
prose  of  John  Foster,  who  himself  also  suffered 
from  the  same  deficiency  of  ear.  That  Foster's 
taste  was  limited  we  may  infer  from  the  fact  that  it 
was  his  custom  frequently  to  ask  for  the  lines  : 

Forgive,  blest  shade,  the  tributary  tear 
That  mourns  thy  exit  from  a  world  like  this  ; 

Forgive  the  wish  that  would  have  kept  thee  here 
And  stayed  thy  progress  to  the  seats  of  bliss. 

1  Stanford's  "  Doddridge,"  p.  128. 


MUSIC  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SERVICE  175 

This  was  his  favorite  hymn,  and  set  to  suitable 
music  it  seemed  to  afford  him  a  tranquil  rather  than 
a  stimulating  satisfaction.  I  may  add  that  a  prac- 
tical knowledge  of  singing  will  aid  you  in  selecting 
hymns  that  will  sing  well,  and  will  enable  you  to 
exercise  some  intelligent  control  over  the  music 
that  is  sung. 

4.  In  case  you  appreciate  the  importance  of  the 
subject,  take  a  personal  interest  in  this  part  of  the 
service,  and  by  some  of  the  various  ways  which 
have  been  suggested,  educate  yourself  in  sacred 
poetry,  it  will  be  tolerably  certain  that  you  will 
use  every  opportunity  to  bring  this  matter  of 
church  music  liome  to  the  minds  and  hearts  of  your 
congregation. 

(i)  The  singing  school  has  already  been  rec- 
ommended ;  and  if  this  is  not  practicable,  you  must 
resolve  that  in  one  way  or  another  you  will  pro- 
mote congregational  practice.  "In  order,"  says  a 
music  teacher,  "to  have  good  congregational  singing 
there  must  be  congregational  practice  ;  this  is  just 
as  imperative  as  that  the  choir  should  practice  for 
the  proper  rendering  of  its  part  of  the  music. 
Prayer  meeting  and  Sunday-school  singing  should 
also,  as  far  as  possible,  make  use  of  the  same  hymns 
and  tunes  that  are  sung  in  the  church." 

(2)  Occasionally  lecture  on  some  aspects  of  the 
subject.  These  addresses  will  be  more  suitable  for 
a  week  evening  than  for  Sunday.  Your  organist 
and  choir  will  help  you  in  dealing  with  such  topics 
as  "  Sacred  Music  "  ;  "  The  Music  of  the  Bible  "  ; 


176  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

"  Early  Christian  Hymns";  "The  Older  Hymns 
and  Tunes";  "The  Twelve  Best  Hymns  ";  "Hymns 
with  Stories  "  ;  "  The  Ministry  and  Mission  of  the 
Choir." 

(3)  Keep  the  subject  of  church  music  prominent 
in  the  public  service.  Make  the  announcement  of 
the  hymns  clear  and  impressive.  Now  and  then 
refer  to  the  hymn,  either  before  or  after  it  is  sung. 
Occasionally  preach  on  church  music  or  some  kin- 
dred topic.  Of  Cotton  Mather,  who  seems  to  have 
made  a  practice  of  doing  this  once  a  year,  we  read 
on  one  occasion,  "At  night  Dr.  Mather  preached 
in  the  schoolhouse  to  the  young  musicians,  from 
Rev.  14  :  3,  *  No  man  could  learn  that  song.'  House 
full,  and  the  singing  extraordinarily  excellent." 
At  the  prayer  meeting,  open  with  a  short  service 
of  song.  Within  proper  limits,  encourage  those 
who  attend  to  call  for  their  favorite  hymns.  And 
always  insist  upon  the  great  importance  of  this 
part  of  the  worship  of  God.  In  his  "Directions 
for  self-examination  preparatory  to  communion," 
Jonathan  Edwards  has  this  question,  ''Do  you 
live  in  sin  by  erring  in  the  neglect  of  singing  God's 
praise,  for  if  it  is  God's  command  that  we  should 
worship  him  in  this  way,  then  obviously  your 
duty  is  to  do  it.  Inasmuch  as  it  cannot  be  done 
without  learning,  therefore,  he  who  has  neglected 
opportunities  of  doing  so  is  living  in  sin." 


MUSIC  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SERVICE 
(Concluded) 


SUMMARY 


Two  Preliminary  Observations. 

1.  The  minister  is  as  responsible  for  this  as  for  any  other 

part  of  the  service. 

2.  He  should  therefore  reserve  to  himself  some  control  over 

all  the  music  in  public  worship. 
THE  HYMN. 

1.  The  minister  should  be  careful  in  the  selection  of  hymns 

which  are  used, 
(i)  The  doctrine  should  be  sound. 

(2)  The  sentiment  should  be  wholesome. 

(3)  The  prevailing  spirit  should  be  one  of  praise. 

(4)  Hymns  which  are  too  subjective  should  be  avoided. 

(5)  And  also  hymns  which  preach. 

(6)  The  literary  style  of  the  hymns  should  be  consid- 

ered, a.  It  must  be  poetic  in  expression  and  in 
composition,  b.  It  should  not  confuse  or  mingle 
metaphor. 

(7)  Variety  in  the  selection  should  be  arrived  at. 

2.  The  minister  should  pay  attention  to  the  arrangement  of 

the  hymns  in  the  service. 

3.  He  should  be  careful  in  announcing  the  hymns. 

(i)  No  introductory  phrase. 
(2)  Reading  the  hymn. 

4.  He  should  form  one  of  the  congregation  throughout  this 

part  of  the  service. 

5.  He  should  encourage  the  congregation  to  take  as  large  a 

share  as  possible  in  the  musical  part  of  the  service. 


X 

MUSIC  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SERVICE 

In  this  chapter  we  shall  deal  chiefly  with  The 
Hymns  which  are  sung  in  public  worship.  Two 
points  need  to  be  noticed  before  doing  this. 

I.  The  minister  is  as  responsible  for  the  musical 
part  of  the  service  as  he  is  for  any  other  part  of  it. 
That  it  may  be  the  means  of  rousing  religious  feel- 
ing, of  deepening  conviction,  and  even  of  reaching 
hearts  that  the  sermon  may  fail  to  touch,  we  have 
already  seen.  Doddridge  received  as  much  pleas- 
ure as  he  gave  when  he  wrote  to  Watts  :  "  After 
a  sermon  from  Heb.  6:  12  we  sang  one  of  your 
hymns,  and  in  that  part  of  the  worship  I  had 
the  satisfaction  to  observe  tears  in  the  eyes  of  sev- 
eral of  the  people.  After  the  service  was  over, 
some  of  them  told  me  that  they  were  not  able  to 
sing,  so  deeply  were  their  minds  affected."^  In 
this  instance  the  hymn  intensified  the  feeling  which 
the  sermon  had  first  created.  No  minister  can 
afford  to  lose  this  powerful  aid  to  his  preaching. 
Yet  there  seems  to  be  a  very  general  impression 
(shared  alike  by  the  minister  and  the  musicians) 
that  the  responsibility  for  the  music  rests  entirely 
upon  the  leader  of  the  choir  or  the  organist.     For 

1  Wilmott's  "  Sacred  Poets,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  129. 

179 


l80  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

this  impression  the  minister  has  often  himself  to 
blame.  He  has  consented  to  share  his  responsi- 
bility with  another,  and  then  surrendered  it  alto- 
gether. But  you  should  remember  how  in  the 
temple  service  the  whole  charge  of  the  music  was 
in  the  hands  of  consecrated  Levites.  They  con- 
ducted the  great  choral  services  of  the  national 
sanctuary,  and  often  composed  alike  the  words  that 
were  sung  and  the  music  which  was  performed. 
Following  this  precedent,  the  liturgical  churches 
have  priests  especially  set  apart  for  this  purpose. 
And,  besides,  without  appealing  to  ecclesiastical 
authority,  as  a  matter  of  expediency  it  is  desirable 
that  the  whole  service  be  under  one  supervision. 

2.  The  minister,  therefore,  should  reserve  to 
himself  some  control  over  all  the  music  which  is  to 
be  used  in  the  service.  Of  course  this  control  must 
be  exercised  discreetly.  As  the  leader  of  the  music 
and  the  organist  grow  familiar  with  the  minister's 
taste  and  choice,  they  will  instinctively  consult 
them.  And  he,  for  his  part,  will  make  his  share 
in  the  musical  selections  advisory  rather  than 
arbitrary.  He  will  interfere  as  little  as  possible, 
but  his  wishes  will  naturally  be  consulted,  and  his 
judgment  will  be  conclusive. 

We  may  note  in  passing  that  the  words  of  the 
hymns  are  not  made  for  the  music,  but  the  music 
for  the  words.  Because  a  tune  is  attractive,  that 
is  no  reason  for  its  being'^sung,  unless  a  hymn  suit- 
able to  the  occasion  calls  for  it.  Any  piece  of 
music  which  does  not  promote  the  worship  of  the 


MUSIC   IN  THE   PUBLIC  SERVICE  l8l 

congregation,  hinders  it.  By  all  means  cultivate, 
in  yourself,  in  the  choir,  and  in  the  congregation  at 
large,  the  spirit  which  prepares  the  heart  before  it 
tunes  the  voice  or  the  instrument/  If  this  be  done 
the  widest  range  can  be  given  to  the  musical  re- 
sources which  can  be  pressed  into  the  service.  The 
only  question  which  you  need  ask  as  to  the  instru- 
ment, the  voice,  the  piece  of  music,  is  :  Does  this 
help  the  majority  of  the  people  to  worship  God  ? 
Others  (to  take  an  example)  besides  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Dale  might  be  disposed  to  say,  "  I  don't  think  that 
any  sermon  on  the  words,  '  The  Lord  is  mindful  of 
his  own,'  could  do  so  much  for  me  as  the  anthem 
when  it  is  well  sung."  ^ 

So  much  being  premised,  we  will  deal  with  The 
Hymns  which  are  sung  in  the  Public  Service. 

I.  The  minister  should  be  careful  in  making  his 
selection  of  hymns.  He  should  choose  them  him- 
self, and  do  so  intelligently.  The  course  pursued 
by  an  old  New  England  pastor  of  the  last  century 
of  reading  Watts'  psalms  and  hymns  right  through, 
and  requesting  his  brethren  who  occasionally 
preached  for  him  to  hold  by  the  accustomed  order, 
whatever  the  relevancy,  or  want  of  relevancy,  of 
the  hymn  to  the  sermon,  is  not  to  be  commended.' 
This  was  to  sacrifice  everything  else  to  routine. 
And  often  it  must  have  been  hard  to  fmd  either 
rhyme  or  reason  in  the  selection. 


1  Ps.  57  :  7,  8.  -  "  Life,"  p.  552. 

'  Dorus  Clarke,  "  Saying  the  Catechism,"  p.  14  ;  Elson,  "  National  Music 
of  America,"  p.  46. 


l82  PUBLIC   WORSHIP 

(i)  To  go  into  detail  in  this  matter,  let  us  say,  in 
the  first  place,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  hymn  should 
be  sound.  The  hymns  which  hold  a  permanent  place 
in  our  own  books  are  very  doctrinal.  Most  of  them 
are  rich  in  those  great  central  truths  which  refer  to 
the  person  and  work  of  our  Lord.  And,  as  a  rule, 
they  were  born  in  the  times  when  the  heart  of  the 
church  has  been  most  deeply  stirred  by  great  doc- 
trinal convictions.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  was  a 
very  pronounced  Unitarian,  and  yet  he  wrote  : 
"  There  are  very  few  modern  hymns  which  have 
the  old  ring  of  saintliness  about  them.  Sometimes 
when  I  am  disinclined  to  listen  to  the  preacher  at 
church  I  turn  to  the  hymn  book,  and  when  one 
strikes  my  eye  I  cover  the  name  at  the  bottom  and 
guess.     It  is  almost  invariably  Watts  or  Wesley." 

No  one  will  question  that  very  often  deep  im- 
pressions have  been  made  by  hymns  containing 
either  questionable  teaching  or  an  unfair  emphasis 
on  certain  doctrines  of  Scripture.  Michael  Wiggles- 
worth,  who  came  to  New  England  in  1638,  must 
have  caught  his  conception  of  the  divine  wrath  from 
medieval  sources,  rather  than  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment, when  he  could  write  the  following  words 
about  the  lost,  which  burned  themselves  into  the 
memories  of  the  generation  of  the  early  settlers  in 
this  country  : 

They  wring  their  hands,  their  caitiff  hands, 

And  gnash  their  teeth  for  terror ; 
They  cry,  they  roar,  for  anguish  sore, 

And  gnaw  their  tongues  for  horror ; 


MUSIC   IN  THE   PUBLIC   SERVICE  183 

But  get  away,  without  delay, 

Christ  pities  not  your  cry  ; 
Depart  to  hell,  there  may  you  yell 

And  roar  eternally. 

"  Who,"  asks  Dr.  Austin  Phelps/  "  ever  received 
from  the  scriptural  imagery  of  Christ's  relation  to 
the  Father  in  the  work  of  atonement  that  concep- 
tion of  the  Father's  vengeance  which  Doctor  Watts 
has  versified  in  a  stanza  which,  if  it  had  been  sung 
of  the  Greek  Nemesis,  would  have  surpassed  any 
equal  number  of  lines  in  Homer  ? 

"  Rich  were  the  drops  of  Jesus'  blood. 
Which  calmed  the  frowning  face  ; 
Which  sprinkled  o'er  the  burning  throne, 
And  turned  the  wrath  to  grace." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  child  who  commits  to 
memory  the  fine  hymn  of  "  Praise  for  Creation 
and  Providence,"  from  the  same  writer's  "Divine 
and  Moral  Songs,"  carries  with  him  a  conception  of 
God  which  may  elevate  and  inspire  his  whole  after 
life.  The  doctrinal  teaching  embodied  in  such  noble 
hymns  as  "What  equal  honors  shall  we  bring  ?  " 
and  "  Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul,"  and  "  Rock  of 
Ages,  cleft  for  me,"  may  quicken  and  direct  the 
faith  which  the  sermon  has  failed  to  touch. 

(2)  The  sentiment  of  the  hymn  should  be  whole- 
some. This  many  of  the  popular  hymns  are  not. 
Avoid  the  frequent  use  of  what  have  been  called 
amatory  hymns.     "Safe  in  the  arms  of  Jesus"  is 

1  Phelps,  "  Men  and  Books,"  p.  261. 


1 84  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

the  later  representation  of  this  type,  which  in 
former  generations  found  expression  in 

Dear  Saviour,  let  thy  beauties  be 
My  soul's  eternal  food. 

Faber's  "His  huge  tenderness"  and  "His  sweet 
blood  "  are  objectionable  phrases  of  the  same  kind. 
Equally  with  this  defect,  extravagance  and  insin- 
cerity of  expression  are  to  be  deprecated.  Apart 
from  the  imperfect  rhyming,  good  taste  objects  for 
this  reason  to 

Lord,  what  a  barren  land  is  this 

That  yields  us  no  supply  ; 
No  cheering  fruits,  no  wholesome  trees, 

No  streams  of  living  joy. 

Even  if  the  religious  teaching  is  sound  the  senti- 
ment is  not  in  the  lines  : 

This  robe  of  flesh  I'll  drop,  and  rise 
To  seize  the  everlasting  prize  ; 
And  shout,  while  mounting  through  the  air, 
"  Farewell,  farewell,  sweet  hour  of  praytr." 

The  florid  hymn  is  to  be  avoided.  Often  it  is  not 
worthy  of  the  name  of  literature.  "  Shall  we 
gather  at  the  river  ?  "  is  a  sample  of  this  kind  of 
doggerel. 

The  fashion  for  introducing  repulsive  imagery 
into  hymns  is,  we  may  hope,  passing  away.  We 
no  longer  use  Doctor  Watts'  lines  : 

Here  every  bowel  of  my  God 
With  soft  compassion  rolls, 


MUSIC   IN  THE  PUBLIC  SERVICE  185 

although  the  lines 

Earth  from  afar  hath  heard  thy  fame 
And  worms  have  learned  to  lisp  thy  name, 

still  baffles  the  ingenuity  of  natural  history  to  ex- 
plain them  intelligently. 

Good  taste  will  also  decide  that  some  things 
which  need  to  be  said  in  the  sermon  can  find  no 
place  in  the  hymns.  It  is  possible  to  read  but  not 
to  sing 

My  thoughts  on  awful  subjects  roll, 
Damnation  and  the  dead. 

(3)  As  a  general  rule,  the  prevailing  spirit  of  the 
hymns  for  congregational  use  should  be  one  of 
praise.  Always  have  one  hymn  of  praise  in  the 
service.  There  is  some  reason  for  the  complaint 
of  Doctor  Dale  that  "the  hymns  which  have  been 
written  for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  have  no 
faith  or  hope  or  joy  in  them.  They  are  all  tears 
and  sighs.  They  might  have  been  written  by  peo- 
ple who  never  heard  of  the  liberty  with  which 
Christ  made  his  people  free."^  The  psalms  of 
David,  the  hymns  of  the  early  church,  the  best 
strains  of  the  hymns  that  really  help,  are  oftener 
than  not  jubilant.  This  history  of  sacred  song  is  a 
history  of  joyful  expression.  There  was  gladness 
in  the  song  that  was  sung  with  timbrels  and  dances 
by  the  enfranchised  Hebrews  on  the  banks  of  the 
Red  Sea,  when  they  had  escaped  from  Egypt,  and 
in  the  resounding  refrain  with  which  the  nation  cele- 

1  "  Life,"  p.  223. 


l86  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

brated  the  opening  of  Solomon's  temple.  "  Praise 
tlie  Lord,  for  lie  is  good  ;  for  his  mercy  endureth 
for  ever."  The  Christian  church  was  born  in  joy- 
ful songs/  the  psalm  which  accompanied  the  insti- 
tution of  the  Lord's  Supper,  the  outburst  of  holy 
confidence  with  which  the  little  company  met  the 
threatenings  of  the  chief  priests  and  elders,  even 
the  hymns  which  Paul  and  Silas  sang  in  the  jail  of 
Philippi  '^ — all  had  in  them  strains  of  gladness.  The 
same  observation  holds  true  about  the  hymns 
which  Luther  sang  at  the  time  of  the  Protestant 
Reformation  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  Wesley, 
during  the  evangelical  revival  two  hundred  years 
later.  And  do  not  all  these  and  many  others  an- 
ticipate the  time  when  the  circle  of  praise  shall  be 
complete  and  the  songs  of  Moses  and  the  Lamb 
shall  celebrate  the  first  victory  of  the  Lord  God 
Almighty  .-'  Augustine  may  almost  be  justified  in 
claiming,  as  he  does,  that  the  hymn  has  a  three-fold 
office  to  perform — it  must  praise,  and  it  must  praise 
God,  and  it  must  praise  God  in  the  foim  of  a  song. 
(4)  Further,  we  would  say,  be  sparing  in  the 
use  of  subjective  hymns.  The  hymn  which  ap- 
peals to  the  greatest  number  is  likely  to  be  the 
hymn  best  suited  to  the  congregation.  There  is 
reason  in  the  criticism  of  Dr.  George  Adam  Smith, 
when,  contrasting  the  Psalter  with  the  modern 
hymn  book,  he  says  :  "  The  defect  of  modern  hym- 
nology  is  that  it  fails  to  strike  the  national  note." 
Certainly  the  note  should  be  one  in  which  the  joys 

1  Matt.  26  :  30  ;  Acts  4  :  24.  ^  Acts  16  :  25. 


MUSIC   IN  THE  PUBLIC  SERVICE  187 

and  sorrows,  the  aspirations  and  the  confessions 
of  the  church  at  large  find  expression.  Channing 
"never  read  any  but  the  devotional  hymns  in  a 
Sunday  service,"  and  Emerson  "selected  those  that 
were  of  a  purely  meditative  character,  without  any 
distinctively  Christian  experience."  But  your  ex- 
perience as  a  pastor  will  lead  you  to  do  the  very 
reverse  of  this.  The  hymn  in  Protestant  worship 
has  a  distinctively  objective  office  to  perform.  As 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  says  :  "  The  imagination 
wants  help,  and  if  it  cannot  get  it  in  pictures, 
statues,  crucifixes,  it  will  find  it  in  words."  ^  Many 
of  the  hymns  of  Lynch,  Faber,  Frances  Havergal, 
and  Bonar  are  invaluable  for  private  use,  but  they 
are  not  suited  to  the  general  congregation.  New- 
man's "Lead,  Kindly  Light,"  is  now  generally 
recognized  as  a  touching  fragment  of  autobiography, 
but  not  a  hymn. 

(5)  Distinguish  between  the  hymn  and  the  ser- 
mon. A  hymn  should  praise,  but  it  should  not 
preach.  A  good  hymn,  it  has  been  said,  "should 
embody  Scripture,  not  dogma  ;  it  should  contain 
universal  truths  without  being  didactic."  The  pious 
sentiment. 

Religion  is  the  chief  concern 
Of  mortals  here  below, 

is  not  suitable  for  singing  any  more  than  is  one  of 
the  proverbs  of  Solomon.  The  eccentric  hyper- 
Calvinist,  William  Huntingdon,  put  the  five  points 

1  •■  Life,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  254. 


l88  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

of  his  favorite  creed  into  as  many  stanzas,  all  of 
them  possessing  to  the  full  the  complacent  satisfac- 
tion with  self  and  indifference  to  the  rest  of  man- 
kind which  is  expressed  in  these  lines  : 

Election  is  a  precious  truth, 

But,  Lord,  I  wish  to  be 
Assur'd  by  thy  own  Spirit's  mouth, 

That  thou  hast  chosen  me. 

At  the  opposite  extreme  in  doctrine,  John  Wesley 
is  equally  guilty  of  sacrificing  the  hymn  to  the  ser- 
mon when,  in  his  "Hymns  on  the  Trinity,"  he 
would  have  his  congregation  sing  : 

Triune  God  of  pard'ning  love, 

Thy  divine  economy 
All  our  thanl^cful  hearts  approve. 

Thee  adore  in  persons  three. 

After  this  we  can  almost  forgive  Ralph  Emerson 
for  embodying  his  theology  in  the  once  famous 
"  Gospel  Sonnets,"  of  which  one  couplet  may  suf- 
fice us  : 

Faith's  certain  by  fiducial  acts,^ 

Sense  by  its  evidential  facts. 

(6)  Although  not  many  great  poets  have  left  us 
hymns,  yet  the  question  of  literary  style  must  not 
be  entirely  set  aside,  a.  The  hymn  should  be 
poetic  in  expression.  The  father  of  Isaac  Watts 
was  a  deacon  of  a  Congregational  church  at  South- 
ampton, and  there  it  was  that  the  young  man  was 
impressed  with  the  poverty  of  the  hymns  which 

i"Encyc.  Brit.,"  Art.  "  Hymns." 


MUSIC   IN  THE   PUBLIC   SERVICE  189 

were  sung.  He,  as  Lord  Selborne  says,  was  the 
first  to  understand  the  want  at  that  time  of  good 
hymns,  and  the  EngHsh  Independents,  as  repre- 
sented by  him,  were  "the  real  founders  of  modern 
English  hymnology."  ^  "  Consider,"  says  Watts' 
brother,  writing  to  urge  him  to  publish  his  hymns, 
"how  very  mean  the  performers  of  this  kind  of 
poetry  appear  in  the  pieces  already  extant."^ 
"One  hymn  writer,"  he  says,  "reduces  us  to 
yawning  indifferency,"  while  another  "chimes  us 
asleep."  Watts  was  too  modest  as  well  as  too 
conscious  of  his  own  limitations  to  pretend  to  being 
a  poet.  He  never,  as  he  puts  it,  set  himself  up 
"  among  the  numerous  competitors  for  a  poet  of 
the  age.  He  had  only  sported  with  rhyme."  Some- 
times, it  must  be  confessed,  the  sport  was  not  very 
successful.  One  of  his  noblest  hymns  is  marred 
by  an  unfortunate  adjective  when  he  bids  any 
creature 

Rise  and  sing 
Peculiar  honors  to  our  King. 

Such  expressions  as  "  How  decent  and  how  wise," 
"  He  sits  on  no  precarious  throne,"  are  common- 
place enough.  The  hymn  which  ranks  among  his 
finest,  "  When  1  survey  the  Wondrous  Cross," 
is  disfigured  by  a  stanza — rarely  sung  now — in 
which  a  repulsive  simile  is  abandoned  for  an  un- 
meaning couplet : 

His  dying  crimson,  like  a  robe, 
Spreads  o'er  his  body  on  the  tree  ; 

1  "  Encyc.  Brit.,"  Art.  "  Hymns."       -  "  Isaac  Watts,"  by  E.    P.  Hood,  p.  85 


igO  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

Then  am  I  dead  to  all  the  globe, 
And  all  the  globe  is  dead  to  me. 

But  a  comparison  with  earlier  hymns  shows  how 
immeasurably  superior  was  Watts  to  his  predeces- 
sors. The  hymns  sung  by  the  Puritans  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic  were  certainly  not  marked  by 
much  beauty  of  poetic  expression.  It  must  have 
been  no  easy  matter  to  line  out  or  to  sing  such  a 
stanza  as  : 

Why  dost  thou  withdraw  thy  hand  abacke, 

And  hide  it  in  thy  lappe  ? 
Oh  pluck  it  out,  and  be  not  slacke 

To  give  thy  foes  a  rappe. 

The  pastor  of  the  Maze  Pond  Baptist  Church  in 
London,  must  be  credited  with  more  grace  of  heart 
than  grace  of  utterance,  when  he  invited  his  people 
to  celebrate  the  renovation  of  the  chape!  by  singing 

But  oh  the  want  of  salt,  O  Lord  ! 

How  few  are  salted  well ! 
How  few  are  like  to  salt  indeed  ! 

Salt  thou  thine  Israel ! 

The  common-place  of  expression  is  reached  in  such 
lines  as  : 

As  shepherds  in  Jewry  were  guarding  their  sheep 
Promiscuously  seated,  estranged  from  sleep  ; 

and  however  much  one  sympathizes  with  him  in 
his  sufferings  it  must  have  been  no  easy  matter  to 
sing  : 

King  Hezekiah  lay  diseased, 

With  every  dangerous  symptom  seized. 


MUSIC   iN  THE   PUBLIC   SERVICE  191 

A  minister  in  one  of  tlie  midland  counties  of  Eng- 
land was  startled,  not  fifty  years  since,  by  discover- 
ing this  stanza  in  the  hymn  book  of  a  little  chapel  :  ^ 

Clipt  are  the  greedy  vulture's  claws- 
No  more  we  dread  his  power ; 

He  gapes  with  adamantine  jaws, 
And  grins— but  can't  devour. 

Even  in  the  fine  hymn  in  which  Fawcett  gave  ex- 
pression to  the  joy  of  Christian  fellowship,  "  Blest 
be  the  tie  that  binds,"  occurs  one  couplet  which  is 
ludicrous  in  its  suggestion  of  a  tragic  misfortune  : 

When  we  asunder  part, 
It  gives  us  inward  pain. 

Then  again  the  hymn  should  not  contain  dis- 
cordant or  unmelodious  rhyme.  To  harmonize 
"joined  "  and  "  find,"  "  alone  "  and  "  begun,"  as 
is  attempted  in  one  stanza  of  a  well-known  hymn, 
is  a  sin  against  euphony. 

b.  Although  many  of  our  best  hymns  sin  against 
the  law,  yet  it  remains  a  law  in  force  that  a  hymn 
should  not  be  disfigured  by  confused  or  mingled  met- 
aphors. Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  speaks  of  "Rock 
of  Ages"  "as  by  repute  the  best  hymn  in  the  Eng- 
lish language,  and  finds  the  secret  of  its  acceptance 
in  the  fact  that  of  all  Protestant  hymns  it  is  the 
richest  in  material  imagery."^  This  is  probably 
true,  yet  in  what  hymns  are  the  metaphors  more 
mixed  }     Robert  Robinson   was  a  great  master  of 

1  "  Life  of  R.  W.  McCall,"  p.   126.  =  "  Life,"  Vol.  IL,  p.  254. 


192  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

English,  but  his  noble  hymn,  "  Come  thou  Fount 
of  every  blessing  "  '  is  full  of  incongruous  figures. 
The  same  is  true  of  "  There  is  a  fountain  filled 
with  blood,"  and  others  scarcely  less  popular  with 
Protestant  congregations.  Plainly  the  law  which 
forbids  mixed  metaphors  has  often  been  more  hon- 
ored in  the  breach  than  in  the  observance  ;  and 
yet  it  is  well  to  respect  it. 

(7)  Aim  at  variety  in  your  selection  of  hymns  for 
congregational  use.  Study  freshness.  "  Sing  unto 
the  Lord  a  new  song."  Have  a  large  number  of 
hymns  on  your  list  from  which  to  choose.  Master 
thoroughly  the  contents  of  the  hymn  book,  and 
mark  those  which  you  consider  good  or  which  find 
general  acceptance.  Do  not  indulge  your  personal 
taste  too  much.  Keep  a  careful  record  of  the 
hymns  which  are  sung,  and  frequently  revise  it. 

2.  The  minister  should  pay  attention  to  the  ar- 
rangement of  the  hymns  in  the  service. 

As  a  rule,  three  will  be  sung  ;  and  they  should 
all  be  sung  by  the  congregation.  The  choir  need 
not  do  for  us  what  we  can  do  for  ourselves.  The 
first  hymn  will  naturally  be  one  of  praise.  Let  the 
keynote  be  strong  and  inspiring.  Do  not  begin 
with  a  hymn  which  applies  to  any  one  part  of  the 
congregation  only.  The  hymn  before  the  sermon 
may  be  on  the  general  theme  of  the  service,  but  it 
should  not  be  on  the  special  verse  from  which  the 
sermon  is  to  be  preached.  This  is  to  anticipate  the 
theme  of  discourse,  and  rob  it  of  freshness  when  it 

1  Kern,  "  Ministry  to  the  Congregation,"  p.  61. 


MUSIC   IN  THE   PUBLIC   SERVICE  193 

is  announced.  The  hymn  that  follows  the  sermon 
may  deal  very  closely  with  the  subject  of  your 
discourse  ;  it  may,  if  wisely  selected,  deepen  any 
impression  that  has  been  made.  At  the  evening 
service,  however,  this  hymn  will  frequently  be  one 
suitable  to  the  close  of  the  day  and  of  the  worship. 
As  a  rule,  Lyman  Beecher's  judgment  seems  to  be 
sound.'  "  it  is  better  that  the  first  and  second 
hymns  be  those  of  direct  worship,  and  that  the  sub- 
ject of  the  sermon  be  not  distinctly  alluded  to  in 
either  of  them;  but  that  the  last  hymn,  sung  after 
the  sermon,  shall  always  be  closely  connected  with 
the  sermon,  following  exactly  in  its  wake — follow- 
ing out  and  deepening,  if  possible,  the  state  of 
mind  or  emotions  awakened  by  the  preacher." 

3.  The  minister  should  announce  the  hymn  with 
care,  (i)  There  is  no  need  for  any  introductory 
phrase.  Read  the  number  once  or  twice,  very  dis- 
tinctly. Do  so  accurately,  and  in  full  :  "  The 
hundred  and  first  hymn."  (2)  As  to  reading  the 
hymn,  there  seems  to  be  some  prospect  that  in 
time  this  will  be  abandoned  altogether ;  certainly  you 
are  under  no  obligation  to  do  so,  and  if  you  have  the 
numbers  printed  in  large  figures  and  placed  in  con- 
spicuous parts  of  the  church,  the  necessity  for  read- 
ing is  much  lessened.  The  days  in  which  hymn 
books  were  few  have,  or  ought  to  have,  passed 
away.  The  reading  of  each  verse  before  singing  it 
dates  from  that  time,  or  from  still  earlier  date  when 
few  in  the  congregation  could  read.     To  read  the 

>  Lyman  Beecher,  "  Life,"  Vol.  H.,  p.  152. 

N 


194  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

hymn,  and  line  it  out,  was  tlie  privilege  of  the  dea- 
con in  the  Nonconformist  churches,  as  it  was  the 
office  of  the  clerk  in  those  of  the  Establishment. 
The  practice  was  brought  here  by  the  early  settlers 
and  "  deaconing  the  hymn  "  was  a  current  phrase. 
The  practice  survived  in  the  churches  of  Scotland 
to  the  present  generation,  and  possibly  in  remote 
parishes  lingers  yet.  To  Watts  we  are  indebted 
for  a  successful  onslaught  on  the  habit.  "  It  were 
to  be  wished,"^  says  he,  ''that  all  congregations 
and  private  families  would  sing  as  they  do  in 
foreign  countries,  without  reading  line  by  line." 
In  New  England  the  deacon  clung  to  his  peculiar 
privilege  tenaciously  ;  and  there  were  cases  in 
which  the  peace  of  the  church  was  threatened 
over  the  question  of  abandoning  it.  When  the 
deacon  surrendered  his  office,  and  the  minister 
took  this,  as  well  as  all  other  parts  of  the  serv- 
ice, the  reading  of  each  stanza  before  singing  it 
remained  one  among  those  traditional  usages  to 
which  men  cling  with  unreasoning  tenacity.'''  Mr. 
Spurgeon  did  this  to  the  last ;  but  probably  in  his 
case  the  character  of  his  congregation  made  it  al- 
most imperative.  The  objections  to  doing  so,  under 
ordinary  circumstances,  are  that,  apart  from  the 
fact  that  it  is  no  longer  needed,  the  reading  often 
retards  the  progress  of  the  service,  and  breaks  its 
devout  continuity,  while  it  is  also  true  that  many 
a  hymn  well  adapted  for  singing  is  not  suited  to 


'  Duffield.  "English  Hymns,"  p.  63. 
2  Elson,  "  The  National  Music  of  America,"  p.  48. 


MUSIC   IN  THE  PUBLIC  SERVICE  195 

reading.  If,  however,  you  read,  do  your  utmost 
to  read  well.  Practise  the  reading  of  hymns  aloud, 
in  your  study.     When  Channing  read  the  line 

Angels,  roll  the  stone  away  ! 

the  congregation  "thought  they  heard  the  move- 
ment of  the  stone  in  the  air."  An  American  wor- 
shiper at  the  Metropolitan  Tabernacle  was  impressed 
with  Mr.  Spurgeon's  reading  of  the  hymn.  "He 
shows  very  clearly  that  he  has  studied  those  hymns 
thoroughly  before  entering  the  pulpit  and  deter- 
mined just  how  to  best  bring  out  the  truths  they 
contain." 

4.  During  this  part  of  the  service  the  minister 
should  form  one  of  the  congregation.  By  this  is 
meant  that  he  should  stand  and  join  in  the  singing. 
Even  though  he  is  not  capable  of  leading  the  people 
in  a  tune,  he  should  "make  a  joyful  noise  to  the 
Lord."  He  is  no  less  capable  of  doing  this  than 
the  majority  of  his  fellow-worshipers,  and  his  dis- 
tance from  them  will  prevent  his  disturbing  the 
finer  sensibilities  of  those  who  are  easily  distracted 
by  a  false  or  feeble  note. 

5.  Certainly  he  should  encourage  the  congrega- 
tion to  take  as  large  a  share  as  possible  in  the 
musical  part  of  the  service.  We  have  already 
advocated  the  frequent  practice  of  tunes  by  the 
congregation.  In  Salem,  where  the  "  Bay  Psalm 
Book  "  was  first  used,  the  elder  "  stayed  the  church 
after  the  public  worship  was  ended  "  to  learn  the 
new   tunes,   and   "  the   church    readily    consented 


196  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

thereto."  The  suigers,  in  their  turns,  were  bidden 
"  so  to  begin  the  tune  of  your  first  note  as  the  rest 
may  be  sung  in  the  compass  of  your  and  the  peo- 
ple's voices,  without  squeaking  above  or  grumbling 
below." ' 

Psalm  singing  was  looked  at  as  a  distinct  act  of 
worship  in  the  early  New  England  times.  When 
any  psalm  tune  was  sung  anywhere  the  caps  were 
doffed,  and  the  Plymouth  Colony  was  yet  in  its 
infancy  when  Robert  Bartlett,  "  having  spoken  con- 
temptuously of  the  ordinance  of  psalm  singing,  was 
censured  by  the  General  Court."  The  secular 
powers  can  be  appealed  to  no  longer,  but  the  min- 
ister may  by  example  and  precept  lead  his  congre- 
gation to  rise  and  join  heartily  in  the  singing  of  all 
the  hymns,  and  he  can  lead  the  way  to  the  time 
(not  far  distant,  we  may  hope)  when  the  Psalms 
will  be  chanted  by  the  wliole  congregation.  We 
would  suggest  tliat  the  people  generally  join  in  the 
Gloria  Patri  and  in  the  Doxology.  The  progress 
of  church  music  in  America  has  been  slow.  The 
first  settlers  in  the  New  England  colonies  were  fol- 
lowers of  Calvin,  who  discouraged  anything  save 
the  singing  of  psalms,  rather  than  of  Luther,  who 
believed  in  praising  God  with  all  the  resources  of 
voice  and  instrumental  music.  Every  step  in  ad- 
vance of  the  one  psalm,  or  at  most  two,  allowed  by 
the  Pilgrims  in  Holland  has  been  met  with  protests 
and  ban.  Now,  our  danger  is  rather  in  excess  than 
in   deficiency.     We   have  perhaps  laid  too   much 

^  Elson,  ante,  pp.  40,  42,  44. 


MUSIC   IN  THE   PUBLIC   SERVICE  I97 

stress  on  the  artistic  rendering  of  our  church  music. 
Assuredly  we  have  traveled  from  the  time  when  a 
writer  in  the  "  New  England  Chronicle,"  in  1723, 
could  utter  his  lamentation  over  singing  by  note  in 
this  woful  strain  :  "  Truly,  1  have  a  great  jealousy 
that  if  we  ever  begin  to  sing  by  rule  the  next  thing 
will  be  to  pray  by  rule  and  preach  by  rule,  and 
then  comes  popery."^  No  doubt  safety  is  to  be 
found  in  the  happy  mean.  Congregational  singing 
— so  far  as  practicable  by  note,  but  by  no  means 
exclusively  so — is  what  the  minister  should  en- 
courage among  his  people.  "  Let  the  people  praise 
thee,  O  God,  let  all  the  people  praise  thee,"  should 
be  the  high  aim  toward  which  he  is  continually 
working. 

1  Elson,  ante,  p.  44. 


XI 
THE  SUNDAY  EVENING  SERVICE 


SUMMARY 

I.  Reasons  for  Considering  the  subject. 

1.  The  change  in  popular  feeling. 

(i)  The  same  people  formerly  attended  both  services. 

(2)  Now  to  attend  two  services  is  rare. 

(3;  Causes  for  this  change:  a.  Altered  conditions  of 
life.  b.  The  present  mission  of  the  pulpit,  c.  Prev- 
alent conception  of  Christian  duty.  d.  A  modified 
view  of  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath,  e.  The  tax 
upon  the  minister. 

2.  The  evening  service  must  be  maintained. 

( 1 )  A  favorable  time  for  preaching  the  gospel. 

(2)  The  only  time  available  in  many  cases. 

(3)  Two  sermons  every  week  possible  to  the  minister. 

(4)  The  character  of  the  discourses  to  be  varied. 

II.  Suggestions    for    Conducting  the    Evening 

Service. 

1.  In  case  two  sermons  have  to  be  preached, 
(i)  Vary  the  subjects  of  the  discourses. 

(2)  Vary  the  treatment  of  the  subjects. 

(3)  Vary  the  method  of  delivery. 

(4)  Put  good  work  into  the  evening  discourses. 

(5)  Make  the  evening  service  largely  evangelistic. 

2.  In  case  a  freer  service  can  be  adopted. 
(i)  An  illustrated  lecture. 

(2)  A  service  of  song. 

(3)  A  lecture  on  some  special  subject. 

(4)  A  Sunday-school  concert. 

(5)  A  Bible  class. 

(6)  A  Bible  reading. 

III.  Counsels. 

1.  Keep  the  evening  service  short. 

2.  Let  the  seats  be  free  to  all. 

3.  Print  a  full  order  of  service. 

4.  Have  good  music. 

5.  Have  a  frank  understanding  with  vour  church. 


XI 

THE  SUNDAY  EVENING  SERVICE 

What  to  do  with  the  Sunday  evening  service  is 
a  question  which  most  ministers  have  to  face  at 
the  present  time.  A  combination  of  circumstances, 
due  in  great  part  to  the  age  and  land  in  which  we 
live,  has  militated  against  the  traditional  service  of 
a  former  generation.  ,The  ministry,  naturally  and 
wisely  conservative,  is  more  apt  to  cling  too  long  to 
the  old  order  than  too  readily  to  adopt  the  new. 
But  the  change  in  the  importance  attached  to  the 
Sunday  evening  service  and  in  the  attendance  on 
it  forces  the  pastor  to  review  the  whole  subject,  so 
as  perhaps  to  give  even  freer  play  to  fresh  methods 
here  than  elsewhere.  The  old  order  changes,  giv- 
ing place  to  the  new.  In  making  full  proof  of  his 
ministry  he  is  wise  if  he  also  modify  his  methods  of 
Christian  work. 

I.  Let  us  first  glance  at  the  two  chief  reasons  for 
considering  this  subject  at  length.  These  are  the 
change  in  popular  feeling,  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on 
the  other,  the  necessity  for  still  maintaining  the 
evening  service. 

(i.)  As  to  the  change  in  popular  feeling.  For- 
merly it  was  the  custom  to  have  two  services 
every  Sunday,  and  these  were,  as  a  rule   attended 


202  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

by  the  same  people.  The  morning  service  was 
followed  by  an  intermission  of  an  hour  or  two, 
during  which  the  Sunday-school  (where  one  had 
been  established)  convened,  and  to  this  succeeded 
the  afternoon  service.  The  whole  concluded  be- 
fore dark,  and  the  evening  was  spent  at  home,  in 
catechizing  the  household,  in  religious  reading,  and, 
although  only  in  moderation,  in  social  visiting. 
The  Sabbath  at  this  period  was  wont  to  last  from 
sundown  on  Saturday  to  sundown  on  Sunday. 

(2.)  Now,  for  the  same  person  to  attend  two 
services  on  Sunday  is  the  exception  rather  than 
the  rule.  An  English  statesman  says,  "  Once  a 
day  is  orthodox,  but  twice  a  day  is  Puritan,"  and 
many  who  would  not  accord  with  this  sentiment 
are  nevertheless  more  orthodox  than  Puritan  in 
their  practice.  The  popularity  of  the  minister  does 
not  materially  affect  the  matter.  Those  who  love 
to  listen  to  sermons  are  apt  to  argue  that  if  the  ser- 
mon is  a  good  one  it  is  as  much  as  can  be  digested 
with  profit,  and  that  if  it  is  not,  then  the  discretion 
which  is  the  better  part  of  valor  counsels  against 
venturing  to  hear  a  second.  The  congregation  to 
which  Henry  Ward  Beecher  preached  on  Sunday 
evening  was  as  large  as  that  which  assembled  in 
the  morning,  but  almost  wholly  different.  "The 
pewholders,"  says  his  biographer,  "are  absent; 
strangers  have  taken  their  places.  The  service 
and  the  sermon  are  modified  accordingly." 

(3.)  it  is  not  difficult  to  account  for  this  change. 
We  may  attribute  it  to  the  following  causes  : 


THE   SUNDAY   EVENING   SERVICE  203 

a.  To  the  altered  conditions  of  life.  The  trend 
toward  the  cities  was  never  so  strong  as  it  is  to-day. 
A  quarter  of  our  population  is  to  be  found  in  them. 
The  farmer  who  went  to  church  with  his  family 
and  stayed  through  both  services,  meeting  his 
neighbors  in  the  interval  and  discussing  the  crops 
and  the  weather,  found  that  to  do  so  was  a  social 
as  well  as  a  religious  necessity.  His  son,  a  mer- 
chant in  the  city,  is  conscious  of  no  such  obligation. 
He  has  other  sources  of  information  than  his  father 
had,  and  he  does  not  need,  as  did  the  Athenians, 
to  tell  or  hear  some  new  thing.  The  "crack  i'  the 
kirkyard,"  which  formed  a  substantial  feature  in 
the  old  Scottish  Sabbath,  has  no  parallel  in  his 
Sunday.  Often,  also,  he  lives  at  some  distance 
from  the  church  which  he  attends,  and  to  carry  his 
family  there  a  second  time  is  costly  to  a  limited 
income  as  well  as  inconvenient.  Nor  is  it  to  be 
forgotten  that  the  stress  and  strain  of  modern  life  is 
in  most  cases  so  severe  that  the  mind  as  well  as 
the  body  craves  rest.  We  may  almost  be  disposed 
to  agree  with  one  writer  on  this  subject  when  he 
says  that  the  people  are  often  tired,  "  not  tired  of 
the  church,  or  public  worship,  nor  of  the  minister, 
but  just  tired,  and  want  to  stay  at  home  and  rest";^ 
and  with  him  we  may  add  :  "  Now  what  is  the  law 
of  the  Sabbath  }  it  is  rest — rest  for  everybody 
and  for  the  beasts  of  burden.  It  appears  to  us  that 
here  we  have  encountered  a  divine  law  which 
operates  throughout  all  nature." 

1"  Outlook,"  April,  1899. 


204  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

/'.  Again,  we  need  to  take  into  account  the  pres- 
ent mission  of  the  pulpit.  It  is  now  only  one  voice 
among  many.  The  preacher  is  under  no  obligation, 
as  perhaps  he  once  was,  to  discuss  political  crises 
and  national  questions  for  the  benefit  of  his  congre- 
gation. Clerical  opinion  is  not  any  longer  fortified 
by  any  mysterious  ecclesiastical  authority.  The 
minister  cannot  now  speak  (?:v  cathedra.  The  news- 
paper and  the  political  orator  and  the  social  re- 
former are  sources  of  popular  information  to-day. 
The  opinion  of  the  minister,  when  he  descends  to 
the  arena  of  subjects  not  distinctively  religious,  is 
worth  no  more  than  the  opinion  of  any  other  man. 
And  these  added  sources  of  information  are  a  dis- 
tinct advantage  to  him.  Now  he  can  confine  him- 
self to  his  own  theme.  "  A  preacher  of  the  gospel 
is  a  man  whose  duty  is  to  declare  the  mind  and 
spirit  of  Jesus  Christ."'  "it  is  enough  for  the 
disciple  that  he  be  as  his  master."^  The  fashion 
set  by  some  preachers,  for  invading  the  province  of 
the  platform  and  the  newspaper  leader,  has  not 
tended  to  increase  congregations  permanently  ;  it 
has  not  augmented  the  popular  respect  for  the  min- 
ister ;  nor  has  it  quickened  the  spiritual  forces  by 
which  the  world  is  to  be  drawn  to  Christ. 

c.  The  change  in  popular  feeling  as  to  the  second 
service  on  Sunday  may  also  be  traced  to  the  con- 
ception of  Christian  duty  which  is  now  prevalent. 
The  church  of  the  present  time,  if  it  is  wise,  will  be 
aggressive.     It  will  not  consent  to  be  bounded  by 

I  Dr.  C.  H.  Parkhursf.  ^Matt.  lo :  25. 


THE  SUNDAY  EVENING  SERVICE  205 

the  walls  of  the  meeting-house.  Mission  schools 
and  mission  services  will  engage  its  attention.  Mr. 
Spurgeon  computed  that  a  thousand  members  of 
his  church  were  occupied  every  Sunday  evening  in 
one  form  or  another  of  evangelistic  work,  and 
therefore  absent  from  his  ov/n  service.  The  Sun- 
day-school adds  to  the  labors  and  exhausts  the 
nervous  energies  of  multitudes  of  Christian  people. 
hi  the  various  forms  of  Young  People's  Meetings 
tens  of  thousands  now  find  the  stimulus  and  nour- 
ishment for  which  they  formerly  looked  exclusively 
to  the  sermon.  The  idea  that  the  whole  duty  of  a 
Christian  person  is  to  be  in  his  pew  twice  every 
Sunday  is  forever  exploded. 

d.  To  these  considerations  must  be  added  the 
modified  view  now  so  prevalent  of  the  sanctity  of 
the  Sabbath.  The  change  in  this  regard  during 
the  past  fifty  years  has  no  doubt  come  about  large- 
ly in  consequence  of  new  tides  of  population  pour- 
ing into  the  country.  The  German,  the  Canadian 
French,  the  Italian,  the  Pole,  the  Hebrew  elements, 
have  never  been  brought  under  the  influence  of  the 
traditional  Puritan  Sabbath.  The  need  for  a  day  of 
rest  is  stronger  than  it  ever  was  ;  but  the  sense  of 
obligation  to  keep  that  religiously  was  probably 
never  weaker. 

e.  Nor  can  we  omit  to  mention  the  heavy  tax 
upon  the  minister  which  is  entailed  by  the  second 
service.  Sermons  are,  we  may  presume,  worthier 
of  the  name  than  formerly.  The  average  of  ex- 
cellence is  a  higher  average.     Very  likely  congre- 


206  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

gations  are  more  critical  than  they  used  to  be,  and 
they  are  harder  to  please.  Certainly  the  minister 
is  heavier  laden  with  work  than  was  his  predeces- 
sor of  a  hundred  years  ago.  Besides  his  pastoral 
visiting,  he  is  on  committees,  he  has  to  organize 
and  arrange  for  meetings  in  the  interests  of  various 
religious  societies,  and  his  own  church  is  a  center 
of  business  as  exacting  and  important  as  the  busi- 
ness of  any  member  of  his  congregation.  Under 
this  strain  he  has  to  prepare  his  two  sermons,  and 
he  will  often  appreciate  the  truth  of  Mr.  Moody's 
statement :  "  I  was  settled  at  one  period  of  my  life 
for  two  years  in  one  place,  and  I  worked  harder 
when  1  was  there,  preaching  two  sermons  in  the 
week,  than  1  have  done  since,  all  the  time  I  have 
been  going  up  and  down  through  the  country."  ^ 
Under  this  combined  pressure  on  body  and  mind 
and  heart,  the  minister  breaks  down  more  fre- 
quently than  he  used  to,  so  that  it  is  not  hard  to 
account  for  the  death,  almost  in  their  prime,  of 
some  of  the  most  conspicuously  active  -'.nd  success- 
ful ministers  of  our  generation. 

2.  The  subject  demands  to  be  considered,  also, 
because  the  evening  service  in  the  majority  of 
cases  needs  to  be  maintained. 

(i)  The  evening  is  the  most  favorable  time  for 
preaching  the  gospel.  It  may  be  true  that  "  the 
worship  of  one  Sunday  morning  is  equal  to  that  of 
half  a  dozen  Sunday  evenings — it  is  of  so  much 
more  genuine  color  and  free  from  excitement"; 

1  "  Parish  Problems,"  p.  414. 


THE  SUNDAY   EVENING   SERVICE  207 

but  it  is  equally  true  that  the  majority  of  people  are 
reached  through  their  emotions  rather  than  through 
their  intellects,  "  1  have  found,"  said  Mr.  Moody, 
"  Sunday  night  the  best  time  to  preach  gospel  ser- 
mons, because  people  seemingly  do  not  expect  to 
be  converted  by  a  Sunday  morning  sermon."  The 
evangelical  awakening  under  Wesley  laid  much 
stress  on  the  evening  sermon.  At  that  period  there 
were  parts  of  England  in  which  the  day  finished 
with  outdoor  sports  in  accordance  with  the  decree 
of  King  James  the  First,  and  the  clergy  of  the  Es- 
tablished Church  oftener  than  not  encouraged  the 
practice.'  Certainly  the  majority  of  them  pre- 
ferred this  way  to  closing  the  day  with  a  service 
such  as  the  Methodists  everywliere  established  ; 
and  they  would  have  sympathized  with  the  Swiss 
clergyman  who  was  wont  to  cap  his  argument 
against  the  propriety  of  evening  services  by  grave- 
ly quoting  "the  fall  of  Eutychus." '■^ 

(2)  It  may  also  be  noted,  as  another  point  in 
favor  of  a  continuance  of  the  evening  preaching 
service,  that  it  is  then  that  the  young  people  are 
especially  apt  to  be  present,  while  to  many  persons 
it  is  the  only  possible  time  for  attending  church. 
In  the  poorer  districts  of  cities,  and  in  the  great 
centers  of  industry,  people  come  out  more  readily 
in  the  evening. 

(3)  We  may  add  that  to  compose  and  preach 
two  sermons  a  week  is  possible  for  any  minister  of 

•  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Adam  Sedgwick,"  Vol.  L,  p.  41. 
2  Lane's  "  Life  of  Vinet,"  p   40. 


208  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

ordinary  ability.  Chrysostom  and  the  early  Fathers 
did  so,  and  from  their  day  to  the  present  the  custom 
has  prevailed.  There  have  been  protests,  but  it  is 
to  be  noted  that  they  have  come  from  the  men  who 
by  a  sermon  have  intended  a  finished  oration.  If 
we  are  familiar  with  the  elaborate  sermons  of 
Bishop  Lancelot  Andrews,  we  shall  not  wonder  at 
his  saying  :  "When  I  preached  twice  on  the  Sun- 
day, 1  prated  once."'  Robert  Hall  had  his  own 
exacting  ideal  in  mind  when,  being  asked  how 
many  discourses  a  minister  could  get  up  each  week, 
he  answered,  "If  he  is  a  deep  thinker  and  a  great 
condenser,  he  may  get  up  one  ;  if  he  is  an  ordinary 
man,  two  ;  if  he  is  an  ass,  sir,  he  will  produce  half 
a  dozen."*  Dean  Hook  considered  one  sermon  a 
week  to  be  enough  for  an  ordinary  man,  and  yet 
on  one  occasion  his  own  diary  records,  "  Three 
sermons  written  this  day."  But  Phillips  Brooks 
puts  the  matter  in  its  true  light,  when,  after  depre- 
cating "  great  sermons,"  he  says  :  "  But  that  a  man 
who  lives  with  God,  whose  delight  is  to  ctudy  God's 
words  in  the  Bible,  in  the  world,  in  history,  in  hu- 
man nature,  who  is  thinking  about  Christ  and 
man  and  salvation  every  day,  that  he  should  not 
be  able  to  talk  about  these  things,  seriously,  lov- 
ingly, thoughtfully,  simply,  for  two  half-hours  every 
week  is  inconceivable,  and  I  do  not  believe  it."' 

11.  We   proceed    to   offer   some   suggestions   for 
conducting  the  Evening  Service. 

'  1555-1626-  -  Davies.  "Successful  Preachers,"  p.  182. 

5  "  Lectures  on  Preaching^,"  p.  152. 


THE  SUNDAY   EVENING   SERVICE  20g 

I.  First,  we  will  take  the  case  of  the  minister 
who  is  expected  to  preach  two  sermons  on  the 
Sunday. 

(i)  You  will  do  well  to  vary  the  subjects  of  the 
two  discourses.  Beware  of  going  twice  over  the 
same  or  similar  lines.  Occasionally,  of  course, 
you  will  take  two  subjects  which  are  complemen- 
tary, and  which  together  set  forth  a  complete  and' 
well-rounded  truth.  As  a  rule,  however,  the  two 
sermons  should  differ  as  much  as  possible.  By 
this  is  not  meant  that  in  the  evening  there  should 
be  any  abandonment  of  the  distinctly  religious 
character  of  the  exercise.  Addresses  on  literary 
subjects — studies  of  great  poems,  and  the  like — 
seem  to  be  out  of  place  here.  Nor  do  we  mean  that 
the  preacher  in  his  search  for  variety  should  fall 
back  on  an  appeal  to  sensational  themes,  or  throw 
a  tub  to  the  whale  in  the  shape  of  what  he  calls  a 
prelude,  in  which  he  discusses  current  politics  and 
kindred  subjects.  An  appeal  to  such  methods  does 
not  hold  the  people,  but  "it  does  cheapen  the  pul- 
pit and  set  the  house  of  God  in  the  same  row  with 
the  drygoods  stores,  millinery  shops  and  other  in- 
stitutions that  put  big  head-lines  in  the  newspapers, 
and  flaming  placards  in  the  front  windows."  ^  There 
is  quite  range  enough  in  the  message  of  salvation 
for  the  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  to  find  variety  in 
the  subjects  of  his  discourses  Sunday  by  Sunday. 

(2)  Vary,  also,  your  treatment  of  the  subject  in 
the  evening.     The  Scottish  method  is  admirable, 

»  Dr.  C.  H.  Parkhurst. 
O 


210  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

where  a  sermon  is  prepared  for  one  service  and  a 
lecture  or  exposition  for  the  other.  People  and 
preacher  alike  rebel  against  monotony,  and  this 
can  be  avoided  by  having  a  running  series  of  ex- 
pository lectures  or  studies  of  Scripture  characters 
for  one  part  of  the  day.  "  By  parting  with  ex- 
pository preaching,"  as  Doctor  Phelps  says,  "the 
pulpit  has  parted  with  its  most  important  aid  and  a 
stimulus  to  variety.  No  other  one  thing  gives  to 
preaching  so  wide  a  range  of  religious  thought  as 
the  exposition  of  the  Scriptures,  when  it  comes 
forth  as  the  fruit  of  a  rich,  full  mind — rich  in  schol- 
arly resources  and  full  of.intense,  practical  aims."^ 
The  advice  of  Dr.  R,  S.  Storrs  is  weighty  from  his 
own  long  and  honorable  experience  :  "  If  one  dis- 
course is  preceptive  and  hortatory,  let  another  be 
narrative  in  its  structure.  If  one  is  closely  argu- 
mentative, let  the  next  be  a  careful  yet  free  expo- 
sition of  a  parable  or  psalm.  So  you  will  find  that 
the  mind  releases  itself  from  the  one  subject  by 
taking  another  entirely  distinct ;  its  natural  resil- 
ience is  helped  and  stimulated,  and  you  cease  to  be 
weighted  with  your  previous  processes."  ^ 

Greater  freedom  should  be  given  to  the  evening 
sermon.  The  members  of  the  congregation  have 
in  some  instances  been  trained  to  assist  in  preparing 
it  by  looking  up  material  bearing  on  the  topic  to  be 
discussed,  and  the  Rev.  C.  M.  Sheldon,  who  has 

'  "Theory,"  etc.,  p.  2og. 

2  "  Preaching  Without  Notes,"  p.  57.    See  also  "  Yale  Lectures,"  by  Doc- 
tor Crosby,  p.  193,  and  "  Parish  Problems,"  p.  410,  et  scq. 


THE   SUNDAY   EVENING   SERVICE  211 

tried  the  method  for  series  of  discourses,  finds  that 
"  the  interest  excited  in  the  preaching  of  the  ser- 
mons is  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  persons  en- 
gaged in  their  preparation."  The  plan  of  preaching 
two  sermons  which  are  alii<e  in  conception,  charac- 
ter, and  treatment  is  fast  passing  out  of  use,  and 
we  should  most  of  us  be  inclined  to  agree  with  Pro- 
fessor Drummond,  that  the  making  of  two  such 
sermons  a  week  is  not  "  the  best  thing  a  minister 
can  do  for  Christ,"  in  the  accumulation  and  pressure 
of  church  work  to-day. 

(3)  It  may  be  well  also  that  you  vary  the  method 
of  delivery  in  the  two  sermons.  Some  ministers 
preach  once  with  and  once  without  notes.  Others, 
who  do  not  read,  write  out  one  sermon  in  full,  but 
trust  to  a  carefully  prepared  brief  for  the  second. 
At  all  events,  the  delivery  of  the  evening  discourse 
is  likely  to  be  freer  and  bolder  and  less  conven- 
tional than  that  of  the  morning. 

(4)  Not  that  good  work  should  not  be  put  into 
the  second  sermon.  Do  not  allow  yourself  to  think 
that  you  can  spend  the  principal  part  of  your  time 
and  give  the  freshest  of  your  thought  to  the  morn- 
ing sermon,  leaving  that  of  the  evening  to  gather 
up  the  fragments  which  remain.  The  second  ser- 
mon preached  by  F.  W.  Robertson  was  often  the 
better  of  the  two.  Spurgeon's  evening  discourse, 
although  frequently  run  into  a  different  mold  from 
that  of  the  morning,  was  quite  as  memorable. 

(5)  By  all  means  make  the  evening  service 
largely  evangelistic.      Sometimes  it   may  be   pre- 


212  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

ceded  by  a  brief  service  in  the  open  air.  The 
ritualists  are  setting  a  good  example  by  holding 
short  services  in  two  or  three  places  on  the  way  to 
the  church  and  inviting  the  loungers  on  the  streets 
to  join  with  the  congregation  gathering  for  worship. 
The  procession  with  cross  and  candle  may  not  com- 
mend itself  to  our  judgment,  but  the  spirit  of  the 
effort  is  admirable  and  the  end  which  is  sought  is 
often  good,  while  those  who  attend  these  services 
testify  to  the  deep  respect  everywhere  paid  to  the 
procession  and  its  exhortations  and  songs.  The 
main  thing  for  you  to  be  assured  of  is  that  you  have 
a  distinct  message  for  the  people  from  God.  Fol- 
low the  service  up  with  a  prayer  meeting.  Draw 
the  net.  One  of  the  most  successful  preachers  of 
the  present  time  announced  not  long  since  at  his 
evening  service  that  he  would  be  in  the  lecture 
room  of  the  church  from  nine  o'clock  till  ten  to  be 
interrogated  by  any  one  present,  and  the  questions 
which  were  put  to  him  showed  that  many  an  in- 
quiring spirit  welcomed  the  opportunity  to  submit 
his  doubts  and  difficulties  to  a  scholarly  and  sym- 
pathetic minister.^ 

2.  We  pass  to  consider  the  best  course  to  pursue 
in  case  a  freer  service  can  be  adopted. 

The  nature  of  the  service  must  be  determined  by 
the  neighborhood  in  which  the  church  is  placed  as 
well  as  by  the  character  of  the  congregation  at- 
tending it. 

(i)  Of  late  years  illustrated  sermons  have  been 

'  Dr.  John  ClifforJ,  London. 


THE  SUNDAY  EVENING   SERVICE  21 3 

tried,  in  some  instances  with  good  success.  Re- 
verting to  the  Middle  Ages,  when  the  chancel  of 
the  parish  church  was  at  certain  seasons  trans- 
formed into  a  stage  for  dramatic  representations  of 
Scripture  scenes,  the  Episcopalians  in  England  have 
not  hesitated  in  some  places  to  hold  lantern  serv- 
ices in  which  the  hymns  to  be  sung  and  the  charac- 
ters and  events  to  be  referred  to  in  the  sermon  are 
thrown  upon  the  screen,  which  is  placed  between 
the  chancel  and  the  nave  of  the  church.  In  the 
same  way  one  at  least  of  the  English  bishops  holds 
mass  meetings  in  a  circus  on  Sunday  evenings  and 
illustrates  his  address  by  the  use  of  a  lantern.  As 
a  means  for  making  a  more  vivid  impression  on 
minds  not  readily  accessible  to  the  sermon  these 
methods  may  be  commended.  We  are  disposed, 
however,  to  modify  the  commendation  with  Mr. 
Spurgeon's  advice  to  a  minister  who  consulted  him  : 
"  The  gospel  ought  to  be  its  own  attraction  with- 
out pictures;  but  if  you  can  do  anything  to  save 
the  perishing  don't  stop  for  any  one's  opinions." 

(2)  Occasionally  a  service  of  song  may  be  use- 
ful. There  are  some  churches  in  which  such  a 
service  is  held  once  in  each  month,  and  in  other 
churches  the  second  service  has  been  turned  into  a 
musical  performance,  to  which  Phillips  Brooks,  with 
unwonted  irony,  alludes  when  he  says  :  "  If  the 
people  will  insist  on  coming  twice  to  the  church,  let 
us  cheat  them  with  a  little  poor  music  and  a  'few 
remarks'  and  call  it  a  'vesper  service.'  "^      The 

1 "  Yale  Lectures,"  p.  152. 


214  PUBLIC   WORSHIP 

purpose  served  by  this  service  cannot  justify  the 
sacrifice  of  the  sermon,  which  is  God's  appointed 
way  of  reaching  the  human  heart  with  the  message 
of  salvation. 

(3)  A  series  of  Sunday  evening  lectures  on  special 
subjects  is  often  profitable  and  attractive.  Take 
the  history  of  missions  and  illustrate  it  from  biog- 
raphy, beginning  with  Paul  and  coming  down  to 
our  own  times.  The  lives  of  such  men  as  Columba, 
Boniface,  Francis  of  Assisi,  Las  Casas,  Isaac 
Jogues,  Egede,  Eliot,  Brainard,  Carey,  Henry  Mar- 
tyn,  Judson,  Moffat  or  Livingstone,  John  Williams, 
Bishop  Huntington,  Neesema,  and  John  G.  Paton, 
are  full  of  intense  interest.  In  the  same  way  the 
great  reformers,  preachers,  and  philanthropists  of 
Christendom  may  be  treated. 

(4)  Occasionally  the  Sunday-school  forces  should 
be  rallied  or  the  Christian  Endeavor  Society  or 
Young  People's  Union,  and  an  evening  devoted  to 
their  work  and  progress. 

(5)  Much  good  has  come  from  a  Sunday  evening 
Bible  class  preparatory  to  the  next  Sunday's  lesson 
in  the  Sunday-school.  In  the  hands  of  a  skilled 
expositor,  who  will  encourage  and  answer  ques- 
tions and  press  the  moral  and  spiritual  teaching  of 
the  lesson  home  on  conscience  and  heart,  very 
much  can  be  said  in  favor  of  this  v^ay  of  using  the 
second  service. 

(6)  There  have  been  cases  where  the  minister 
has  so  carefully  and  intelligently  studied  the  diffi- 
cult art  of  reading  the  Bible  that  a  service  devoted 


THE  SUNDAY   EVENING  SERVICE  215 

to  this  one  thing  entirely,  and  in  which  no  sermon 
has  been  attempted,  has  crowded  the  church.  The 
people  really  need  to  know  not  so  much  what  the 
preacher  says  about  the  Bible  as  what  the  Bible 
itself  says.  Such  a  service,  with  prayer  and  suit- 
able music,  should  last  an  hour,  and  must  be  pre- 
pared for  with  much  pains.  The  reading  may  take 
the  form  of  one  continued  biography,  such  as  that 
of  Joseph,  or  of  selections  from  many  places  in  the 
Bible,  all  illustrating  one  distinct  topic.  So  much 
as  to  various  uses  to  which  the  Sunday  evening 
service  can  be  put.  Of  course  these  suggestions 
are  not  exhaustive.  The  mind  of  the  minister  must 
be  kept  fertile  with  new  plans  and  hospitable  to 
new  ideas.  Having  said  so  much,  1  must  add  my 
conviction  that  you  will  best  secure  the  true  end  of 
your  ministry  by  remaining  loyal  to  the  sermon. 
Shorten  it  in  length,  adapt  it  to  the  times  and  the 
people,  but  in  every  service  let  there  be  a  message 
such  as  fidelity  to  your  commission  demands  from 
you.  The  place  of  this  can  be  taken  by  no  substi- 
tute. With  Doctor  Ker  I  would  say,  "  The  church 
that  cannot  and  will  not  preach,  and  preach  well, 
must  go  down."  And  what  is  true  of  the  church 
is  true  of  the  minister.  The  Eastern  Church  suf- 
fered preaching  to  decline  and  ritual  to  take  its 
place,  and  it  was  powerless  before  the  rise  of  Mo- 
hammedanism. The  Western  Churches  have  never 
lost  their  faith  in  the  preacher,  and  to-day  the  ser- 
mon sways  congregations  from  Rome  to  San  Fran- 
cisco.    The  first  thing  for  the  preacher,  as  Doctor 


2l6  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

Chalmers  used  to  say,  is  to  be  known  as  the  man 
of  one  commodity,  the  gospel  of  divine  help  and 
salvation.  That  service  misses  its  mark  which 
fails  to  impress  the  worshiper  with  this  fact.  "  My 
son,"  counseled  Dr.  Francis  Wayland,  "  I  beg  you 
will  always  so  preach  as  to  reveal  God's  hatred  of 
sin  and  his  love  for  the  sinner  ;  man's  guilt  and 
condemnation,  and  God's  infinite  willingness  and 
power  to  save  sinners  through  the  gift  and  sacri- 
ficial sufferings  of  his  Son." 

III.  It  only  remains  for  me  to  offer  some  counsels 
which  may  apply  to  the  Sunday  Evening  Service, 
whatever  be  the  special  form  that  it  happens  to 
take. 

1.  Let  the  service  be  kept  within  the  hour.  There 
is  no  need  that  the  sermon  be  run  into  any  tradi- 
tional mold  or  drawn  out  to  any  traditional  length. 
The  "Morning  Exercises"  of  Robert  Robinson,  of 
Cambridge,  although  more  than  a  century  has 
passed  since  they  were  spoken,  are  still  admirable 
models  of  virile  Saxon.  Briefer  yet  a.e  the  five- 
minute  sermons  of  the  Paulist  Fathers  and  the 
addresses  at  the  vesper  services  of  Harvard  Univer- 
sity. "  Do  not  please  the  devil,"  wrote  John 
Wesley  to  Adam  Clarke,  "  by  preaching  too  loud 
or  too  long,  but  please  God  by  denying  yourself 
herein."  Remember,  however,  that  the  shorter 
the  sermon  the  more  care  must  you  take  in  pre- 
paring it. 

2.  Let  the  seats  be  free  to  all.  Do  not  pauperize 
the  hearts  of  the  people  by  omitting  the  collection. 


THE   SUNDAY  EVENING  SERVICE  217 

There  have  been  always  abundant  proofs  that  a 
congregation,  If  properly  approached  on  the  subject, 
prefers  to  pay  for  any  expense  incurred  on  its  be- 
half. When,  in  a  district  full  of  mills  and  artisans 
and  remote  from  wealthy  suburbs,  Doctor  Dale 
threw  open  his  chapel  every  Sunday  evening  and 
resolved  that  there  should  "be  no  reserved  seats," 
he  had  to  record  that  while  a  few  persons  gave  up 
their  sittings,  "the  income  of  the  weekly  offering 
which  we  now  collect  from  pew  to  pew  at  both 
services  has  more  than  compensated  for  the  loss."* 
The  ushering,  meanwhile,  should  be  well  done, 
and  a  hearty  but  never  servile  welcome  given  to 
every  comer  alike. 

3.  Print  a  full  order  of  service.  Do  not  invite 
the  congregation  to  sing  or  to  join  in  a  responsive 
reading  or  chant  when  the  words  are  not  accessi- 
ble. The  expense  of  this  printing  can  readily  be 
met  by  an  appeal  to  the  people  who  come. 

4.  While  not  allowing  the  service  to  degenerate 
into  a  sacred  concert,  you  should  see  that  the  music 
is  good.  It  is  a  mistake,  however,  to  suppose  that 
an  ordinary  Sunday  evening  congregation  cares  for 
classical  music  exclusively.  One  or  more  hymns 
of  a  popular  character,  and  such  as  all  the  people 
can  sing,  should  always  find  a  place  in  the  order  of 
service.  A  chorus  choir  leading  in  the  hearty  sing- 
ing of  gospel  hymns  touches  many  to  whom  the 
finest  rendering  of  an  anthem  or  solo  will  appeal  in 
vain. 

I  "  Life,"  p.  526. 


2l8  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

5.  From  the  beginning  have  a  frank  understand- 
ing with  your  church  as  to  their  responsibiHty  for 
the  success  in  part  in  this  important  service.  Con- 
sult with  them  as  to  what  will  best  suit  the  claims 
of  the  neighborhood  and  what  is  likely  to  meet 
the  demand  that  the  gospel  be  preached  to  every 
creature.  Not  to  the  pastor  any  more  than  to  the 
people  belongs  the  duty  of  making  this  service  a 
spiritual  power.  There  are  churches  which  lose  a 
congregation  about  every  ten  years  by  their  lack 
of  enterprise,  of  tact,  of  sociability.  You  will  do 
well  to  shoulder  no  more  of  the  responsibility  for 
the  prosperous  course  of  the  service  than  falls  to 
your  share.  If  the  Sunday-school  is  large  and 
energetic,  the  teachers  can  do  much  through  their 
classes  to  furnish  you  with  just  the  congregation 
you  need.  Nor  is  it  right  that  the  members  of  the 
church  should  remain  at  home  on  Sunday  evening 
and  expect  you  to  make  up  for  their  absence  by 
your  own  powers  to  draw  people  to  church.  The 
backing  of  Christian  people  is  of  vast  importance 
to  the  preaching.  No  man  can  occupy  the  breach 
single-handed.  To  know  that  you  are  supported, 
as  you  minister  to  a  congregation  in  large  part  com- 
posed of  strangers,  by  the  presence  and  the  prayers 
of  the  most  earnest  members  of  your  church,  will 
be  a  constant  source  of  strength  to  you.  Peter 
lifted  up  his  voice  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  with  all 
the  more  boldness  because  the  eleven  stood  up 
with  him.^ 

^  Acts  2  :  14. 


XII 
THE  BAPTISM  SERVICE 


SUMMARY 


I.  Preliminary  Hints. 

1.  Study  Scripture  for  models,  precedents,  and  principles. 

2.  Do  not  as  a  rule  advertise  the  baptism  service. 

3.  As  to  the  time  for  holding  the  service. 

4.  The  baptizing  committee  to  be  carefully  selected. 

5.  The  candidate  for  baptism  not  to  be  burdened  with  direc- 

tions previous  to  the  service. 
IJ.  THE  SERVICE. 

1.  If  possible  the  pastor  should  himself  conduct  the  entire 

service. 

2.  Occasionally  it  may  be  well  to  arrange  and  use  a  special 

form  of  service. 

3.  As  to  the  subjects  upon  which  to  preach  on  this  occasion. 

4.  The  directions  for  the  act  of  baptizing. 

5.  The  music  to  be  used  during  the  service. 

6.  The  spirit  in  which  the  service  should  be  conducted. 

(i)  The  great  importance  of  this  service. 
(2)  Jesting  or  levity  unseemly. 


XII 
THE   BAPTISAl    SERVICE 

I.  Before  dealing  with  the  public  baptism  serv- 
ice it  may  be  well  to  offer  some  suggestions  to  the 
minister  upon  whom  so  largely  the  conduct  of  the 
service  will  rest. 

I.  The  first  of  these  is  that  he  should  study  his 
Bible  intelligently  for  models,  precedents,  and 
principles.  He  will  do  well  to  remember  that  the 
responsibility  for  baptism  in  any  particular  case 
lies  primarily  with  the  person  baptized.  This  con- 
viction it  was  that  led  Robert  Robinson,  in  the  last 
century,  to  insist  that  "the  baptism  of  those  who 
believe  in  Jesus  Christ  is  not  a  church  ordinance  "  ;^ 
while  it  finds  more  careful  expression  in  the  words 
of  Dr.  A.  H.  Strong  :  "  Upon  the  person  newly 
regenerate  the  command  of  Christ  first  terminates  ; 
only  upon  his  giving  evidence  of  the  change  within 
him  does  it  become  the  duty  of  the  church  to  see 
that  he  has  opportunity  to  follow  Christ  in  bap- 
tism." ^  This  important  point  should  be  made  clear 
in  the  church-book,  when  the  record  may  run  thus  : 
"  A.  B.,  on  a  profession  of  his  faith  was  received 
for  membership  in  this  church  after  baptism." 

2.  As  a  rule  it  is  not  necessary  to  advertise  the 

'  "  Works  of  R.  Robinson,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  cvi. 
-A.  H.  Strong,  "Systematic  Theology,"  p.  552. 

221 


222  PUBLIC   WORSHIP 

baptism  service  publicly.  To  do  this  is  to  encourage 
the  belief  that  this  distinctive  and  distinguishing 
rite  is  our  reason  for  separate  existence,  whereas 
it  is  only  one  of  several  important  results  which 
flow  from  our  loyalty  to  Scripture  ;  and,  besides 
this,  it  tends  to  degrade  a  most  solemn  and  beauti- 
ful service  into  a  spectacle.  It  ought  not  to  be 
necessary  to  caution  the  minister  ■  against  any  at- 
tempt at  scenic  effects,  as  is  the  case  when  it  is 
advertised  that  it  will  be  "  performed  with  a  spec- 
tacular imitation  of  the  river  Jordan." 

3.  The  time  when  the  baptism  service  is  held 
may  be  varied.  Much  can  be  said  in  favor  of  a 
special  service  on  Sunday  afternoon.  Often  a 
week  evening  prayer  meeting  furnishes  a  profitable 
occasion  for  baptizing.  The  Sunday  evening  is 
more  usual  with  us  ;  but  while  much  can  be  urged 
in  its  behalf,  it  should  not  be  allowed  to  interfere 
with  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  for  which  no 
other  hour  is  so  suitable.  The  Sunday  morning  is 
likely  to  be  more  quiet  and  solemn.  Many  minis- 
ters prefer  baptizing  at  the  opening  rather  than  at 
the  close  of  the  service,  holding  that  this  is  to  be 
preferred  on  behalf  alike  of  the  candidate,  the  pas- 
tor, and  the  congregation. 

4.  Much  care  should  be  given  to  the  selection  of 
the  members  of  the  baptizing  committee.  It  will 
be  their  duty  to  see  to  the  dress  of  the  candidates, 
to  look  after  every  detail  of  the  service  in  private, 
and  to  be  in  attendance  in  the  dressing  room  be- 
fore and  after  the  rite  is  administered. 


THE  BAPTISM   SERVICE  223 

5.  No  good  is  done,  but  only  in  many  cases  harm, 
by  giving  minute  directions  beforehand  to  the  per- 
son about  to  be  baptized.  They  are  apt  to  be  for- 
gotten, or,  worse  still,  misunderstood,  and  even  in 
a  nervous  moment  reversed  by  the  candidate.  Far 
better  is  it  to  speak  to  him  when  in  the  baptistery, 
in  an  assuring  undertone.  The  simpler  all  the  ar- 
rangements are,  providing  only  that  they  be  suffi- 
cient, the  better. 

II.  We  pass  now  to  the  service  itself. 

1.  Our  strong  advice  is  that  the  minister  con- 
duct the  entire  service  himself.  There  is  no  need 
of  help,  and  from  its  first  words  to  the  benediction 
the  service  gains  in  impressiveness  by  being  wholly 
under  his  control. 

2.  Occasionally  it  may  be  well  to  arrange  for  a 
service  which  shall  be  exclusively  devoted  to  the 
administration  of  the  ordinance.  There  should  then 
be  no  sermon.  Let  the  words  of  Scripture  and  the  act 
of  loyalty  to  Christ's  command  alone  speak.  Such  a 
service  may  begin  with  the  Te  Deiim,  or  some  suit- 
able chant  or  anthem,  followed  by  a  reading  from 
the  Psalms  (the  theme  of  which  may  be  the  blessed- 
ness of  obedience),  and  a  hymn.  Before  the  second 
reading  from  the  Bible  (which  may  be  chosen  from 
the  narratives  of  baptisms  in  the  New  Testament), 
there  should  be  a  prayer,  and  a  shorter  prayer, 
bearing  specially  on  this  particular  service,  may  fol- 
low this  reading.  A  hymn  succeeds,  and  then  the 
administration  of  baptism,  and  the  dismissal  with 
the  benediction. 


224  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

3.  It  is  certainly  unnecessary,  if  a  sermon  is 
preached,  to  invariably  discuss  baptism.  Often 
the  less  that  is  said  about  a  rite  which  more 
than  any  other  is  self-interpreting,  the  better,  and 
never  should  the  sacred  influence  of  the  service  be 
disturbed  by  a  polemical  discourse.  Preach  on  the 
resurrection  to  new  life,  or  some  kindred  topic,  and 
let  the  act  of  baptism  be  set  forth  as  a  perpetual 
witness  to  the  great  central  truth  of  the  Christian 
Faith.  We  lay  emphasis  upon  this,  because  the 
impression  which  is  made  on  a  candid  and  devout 
mind  by  the  baptism  itself  may  be  seriously  in- 
jured by  the  spirit  in  which  it  is  administered. 
"  There  is  more  argument  for  the  truth,  as  to  sub- 
ject and  mode,  in  one  properly  administered  bap- 
tism than  in  a  dozen  sermons.  Its  expressive 
symbolism  is  an  absolute  demonstration  of  its  Tight- 
ness.'" 

4.  In  the  water  it  is  best  to  use  the  simplest 
form.  The  minister  should  receive  the  candidate 
from  the  member  of  the  baptizing  cori.mittee  who 
has  the  matter  in  charge,  and  slowly  lead  him  down 
the  steps  or  the  inclined  plane  to  the  place  where 
he  is  to  be  immersed.  One  hand  should  be  placed 
on  the  back  of  the  candidate  and  the  other  against 
the  candidate's  clasped  hands.  The  act  of  immer- 
sion should  be  very  deliberate,  and  the  person 
baptized  be  raised  again  slowly  and  with  little  or 
no  disturbance  of  the  water.  Be  calm  and  self- 
possessed.     Call  the  candidate  by  name,  saying, 

1  Dr.  G.  C.  Baldwin,  "A  Forty-one  Years'  Pastorate,"  p.  214. 


THE   BAPTISM   SERVICE  22$ 

"  A.  B.,  on  a  profession  of  thy  faith,  I  baptize  thee 
in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost."  No  purpose  is  served  by  asking 
questions  of  tiie  candidate.  They  have  already 
been  answered.  This  is  not  the  moment  when  he 
can  command  his  words,  and  a  mere  form  is  mis- 
chievous and  unmeaning.  Be  natural  in  voice  as 
well  as  in  manner,  and  let  your  tone  be  assuring. 
The  usual  mode  of  baptizing  backward  is  probably 
on  the  whole  the  more  convenient,  and,  as  there  is 
no  special  significance  in  any  one  particular  method 
over  another,  convenience  must  decide  in  this  mat- 
ter. Much  can  be  urged,  however,  in  favor  of 
baptizing  kneeling  or  forward.  Robert  Robinson, 
describing  what  he  believed  to  be  the  primitive  cus- 
tom, said  :  "  The  administrator,  whether  in  or  out  of 
the  water,  stood  on  the  right  side  of  the  candidate, 
his  face  looking  to  his  shoulder.  The  candidate 
stood  erect,  and  the  administrator,  while  he  pro- 
nounced the  baptismal  words,  laid  his  right  hand 
on  the  back  of  the  head  of  the  candidate  and 
bowed  him  gently  forward  till  he  was  all  under 
water."  ^ 

After  the  immersion,  lead  the  person  who  has 
been  baptized  to  the  steps  and  guide  him  till  he  is 
again  under  the  care  of  the  attendant  member  of 
the  baptizing  committee.  See  that  there  is  a  hand- 
kerchief ready  to  apply  to  the  face,  and  in  every 
way  assist  him  yourself.  The  act  of  immersion  is 
sometimes  disconcerting  to  an    emotional    nature, 

1  R.  Robinson,  "  History  of  Baptism,"  p.  546. 
P 


226  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

and  you  will  need  to  impart  to  him  some  of  your 
own  self-control.  In  the  hands  of  a  practised  ad- 
ministrator the  service  is  almost  invariably  seemly 
and  quiet. 

5.  During  the  baptism  the  organ  may  be  played 
softly,  rising  in  swell  of  sound  as  the  candidate  is 
immersed  and  lifted  from  the  water,  and  a  hymn 
sung,  a  verse  at  a  time  between  the  baptism  of  the 
various  candidates  is  heartily  to  be  commended.  It 
could  be  wished,  indeed,  that  we  had  more  bap- 
tismal hymns. 

6.  Throughout  the  entire  service  the  minister 
should  be  specially  upon  his  guard.  Doctor  Bald- 
win says  truly  :  "We  believe  that  it  is  part  of  our 
mission  to  preserve  this  ordinance,  which  sym- 
bolizes the  fundamental,  historical,  doctrinal,  and 
experimental  truths  of  Christianity  as  it  was  insti- 
tuted by  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Pastors  cannot 
be  too  careful  in  personally  attending  to  the  details 
connected  with  the  administration  of  this  sacred 
rite."^  It  were  devoutly  to  be  wished  that  no 
word  of  warning  were  needed  against  the  tendency 
to  speak  in  a  jesting  tone  and  manner  about  this 
holy  ordinance  of  our  Christian  religion.  "  To 
make  any  burial  the  subject  of  a  jest  is  a  painful 
profanation.  To  make  the  burial  of  the  believer 
with  his  crucified  Lord  the  theme  of  vapid  wit  or 
foolish  jesting  is  shocking  to  every  spiritual  mind."^ 
The  Baptist  minister  should  beware  lest  in  an  un- 
guarded moment  he  fall  into  this  temptation  of  the 

'  "  Forty-one  Years,"  etc.,  p.  213.  -  Dr.  George  W.  Anderson. 


THE   BAPTISM   SERVICE  227 

evil  one.  Nor  should  he  suffer  ministers  of  other 
denominations,  whether  in  public  or  private,  to  do 
so  without  in  some  way  signifying  his  grief  and  dis- 
pleasure. There  is  no  better  excuse  for  pleasantry 
about  baptism  than  about  the  Lord's  Supper.  Each 
ordinance  is  equally  appointed  by  Christ  and  each 
is  equally  sacred.  It  may  be  well  to  add  that 
neither  should  we  treat  with  any  levity  the  prac- 
tice of  infant  baptism.  The  error  which  it  per- 
petuates is  too  serious  in  its  nature  and  effect  to  be 
made  a  matter  of  jesting  even  were  the  rite  not 
associated  in  the  thoughts  of  multitudes  of  Chris- 
tian people  with  much  that  is  to  them  intensely 
solemn. 

As  a  concluding  note  it  may  be  added  that  some 
form  of  certificate  ^  should  be  prepared  by  the  min- 
ister and  given  to  the  person  baptized  after  the 
service,  or  he  may  preserve  the  date  and  circum- 
stances under  which  he  was  obedient  to  this  di- 
vine command. 

iSuch  as  "The  Baptismal  Souvenir,"  prepared   by  the  Rev.  H.   Wyse 
Jones,  Canandaigua,  N.  Y. 


XIII 
THE  LORD'S  SUPPER  SERVICE 


SUMMARY 


I.  Various  aspects  of  the  Service  in  the  New 

Testament. 

1.  Sacrificial. 

2.  Memorial. 

3.  Family. 

4.  Personal. 

Note.     I.  Each  of  these  to  be  preserved. 

2.  Keep  each  in  mind  during  the  service. 

3.  Let  them  decide  the  details  of  the  service. 

4.  Preserve,  as  far  as  may  be,  the  words  of  Scripture. 

II.  THE  Order  of  Service. 

Preliminary  Notes. 

1.  The  Breaking  of  Bread.     [Order  of  Service]. 

2.  The  Passing  of  the  Cup.     [Order  of  Service]. 

3.  Conclusion.     Hymns  to  be  sung.     Prayer  or  benedic- 

tion.    Social  greeting. 

III.  THE  TIME  FOR  HOLDING  THE  SERVICE. 

IV.  CONCLUDING  Counsels. 

1.  Avoid  controversy  as  to  wine. 

2.  Carefully  instruct  the  deacons  in  their  duties. 

3.  Preserve  a  cheerful  but  solemn  demeanor. 

4.  Occasionally  use  the  service  to  quicken  the  energies  of 

the  church. 

5.  Endeavor  always  to  be  with  the  church  on  communion 

Sunday. 

6.  Adopt  a  system  of  communion  tickets. 

7.  Frequently  preach  upon  subjects  suitable  to  the  service. 


XIII 

THE   LORD'S   SUPPER 

The  benefit  which  we  derive  from  partaking  of 
the  Lord's  Supper  will  depend  to  a  large  extent  on 
our  clear  understanding  of  its  nature  and  purpose. 
These  are  indicatt?d  by  the  terms  which  are  used 
to  designate  it  in  the  New  Testament,  while  the 
erroneous  conception  of  the  ordinance  is  preserved 
in  other  terms  for  which  there  is  no  scriptural  au- 
thority. From  the  lips  of  Jesus  himself  came  no 
one  succinct  and  comprehensive  word  for  the  serv- 
ice. The  authority  for  its  perpetual  observance 
can  be  drawn  from  the  Gospels  only  by  inference. 
Every  reason  for  the  disciples  observing  it  at  the 
first  remains  in  force  for  us  who  are  disciples  now. 
The  phrase  "  The  Lord's  Supper  "  ^ — the  name 
most  familiar  to  us — is  used  by  Paul  in  the  passage 
which  is  our  strongest  direct  authority  for  the  con- 
tinuous observance  of  the  meal.  The  words  "  the 
breaking  of  bread,"  ^  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
even  though  they  point  to  the  time  when,  before 
abuses  put  an  end  to  the  practice,  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per was  inseparably  connected  with  the  love  feasts 
of  the  Christians,  do  none  the  less  remain  to  this 

1  I  Cor.  II  :  20. 

-  Acts  2  :  42-46.     Cf.  Jacob's  "  Ecclesiastical  Polity  of  the   New  Testa- 
ment," p.  207,  etc.,  and  Alford's  "  Greek  Testament,"  in  loc,  i  Cor.  10  :  16. 

231 


232  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

day  as  one  designation  for  the  ordinance.  "  The 
communion  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  "  brings 
to  our  minds  the  deepest  and  most  precious  truth 
in  the  gospel  of  our  salvation,  the  fact  that  we  are 
spiritual  partakers  of  the  divine  life.  There  is  no 
scriptural  authority  for  the  fine  term  "  The  Euchar- 
ist "  ;  although  it  was  no  doubt  derived  from  Paul's 
phrase,  "the  cup  of  blessing."^  To  call  the  meal 
"The  Sacrament,"  is  to  revert  to  the  Roman 
soldier's  oath  of  fidelity  to  his  leader ;  and  to  this 
phrase  we  owe  much  of  the  unnatural  awe  with 
which  the  ordinance  has  been  invested  at  the  hands 
of  superstition  and  priestcraft.  By  us  it  should 
never  be  used. 

I.  For  purposes  not  of  controversy  but  of  profit 
we  may  notice  some  aspects  of  this  service  which 
have  the  authority  of  the  New  Testament. 

I.  The  first  of  these  is  the  sacrificial  conception. 
The  narrative  of  the  synoptical  Gospels  may  lead 
us  to  the  conclusion  that  at  the  first  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per was  instituted  as  a  sacrificial  feast  of  the  new 
covenant.^  Our  recoil  from  materialistic  concep- 
tions of  the  institution  must  not  be  suffered  to  rob 
us  of  the  profound  truth  which  superstition  has  per- 
verted, that  in  this  service  Christ  gives  us  in  sym- 
bol what  by  faith  we  have  already  appropriated, 
his  life,  himself.  The  gift  was  not  consummated 
/until  on  the  cross  the  complete  sacrifice  had  been 
1  made.  This  life  he  gives  us  through  his  broken 
body.     "As  we   have   sinned,  the  life  could  not 

1  I  Cor.  lo  :  i6.  ^  Luke  22  :  19 ;  Matt.  26  :  28. 


THE   LORD'S  SUPPER  SERVICE  233 

become  ours  except  through  his  death  as  the  sacri- 
fice for  the  sins  of  the  world."  ^ 

2.  A  second  aspect  of  the  Lord's  Supper  service 
'  which  is  essential  to  profitable  participation,  is  the 

memorial  conception.  It  is  a  memorial,  however, 
which  is  full  of  hope.  "  I  will  drink  no  more  of  the 
fruit  of  the  vine  until  that  day  that  I  drink  it  new 
in  the  kingdom  of  God."^  "In  remembrance  of 
me  "  links  itself  with  the  other  golden  phrase  "till 
he  come." 

3.  Then,  in  the  third  place,  we  must  give  due 
weight  to  the  family  conception.^  The  Lord's  Sup- 
per is  the  most  comprehensive  expression  of  the 
true  communion  of  saints.  The  family  may  be 
taken  to  mean  the  church  in  any  one  place  assem- 
bled ;  but  it  may  also  mean  the  whole  household  of 
faith,  and  in  the  Communion  we  enter  into  fellow- 
ship with  all  who  love  and  obey  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  The  Lord's  Supper  was  celebrated  only 
by  those  who  were  already  saved.  "  In  the  original 
idea  those  who  came  to  the  table  had  already  come 
to  Christ,  and  were  in  mystic  union  with  him 
by  faith."*  The  abuses  of  later  centuries  can 
most  of  them  be  traced  back  to  a  willful  perversion 
of  this  great  truth. 

4.  Finally,  there  is  the  personal  aspect.  The  se- 
verest self-examination  on  the  part  of  the  disciples 
was  quickened  before  the  Supper  by  the  ominous 
warning  of  their  Master :  "  Verily  I  say  unto  you, 

'  "Life  of  R.  W.  Dale,  D.D.,"  pp.  360.  361. 
*  Mark  14  :  25.        3  Matt.  26  :  26,  29.        *  Dr.  John  Brown. 


234  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

that  one  of  you  shall  betray  me."  '  That  self-ex- 
amination was  a  necessary  preliminary  to  the  serv- 
ice we  infer  from  Paul's  words/  "  Let  a  man  prove 
himself,  and  so  let  him  eat  of  the  bread  and  drink 
of  the  cup."  The  service  known  as  "  Fencing  the 
Tables,"  once  usual  among  the  Presbyterians,  or 
its  later  modification  The  Preparatory  Lecture,  as 
well  as  the  form  of  "  Warning  for  the  celebration  of 
the  holy  Communion,"  prescribed  by  the  Episcopal 
Church,  all  point  to  this  same  duty  of  self-examina- 
tion. To  pervert  and  abuse  this  necessary  prepa- 
ration for  a  profitable  partaking  of  the  Communion, 
to  degrade  it  into  a  mere  form  of  words  or  act  of 
transient  penance,  all  these,  as  the  centuries  show 
only  too  clearly,  are  fatally  easy.  Nevertheless, 
the  personal  element  in  the  Lord's  Supper  must  not 
be  omitted.  There  are  none  of  us  but  may  find 
in  the  disciples'  sorrowful  inquiry,  "one  by  one. 
Is  it  I  ?  "  words  suitable  for  our  own  lips.  This, 
however,  with  the  wholesome  caution  c*^  Dr.  Dale  : 
"  Self-examination  is  a  very  necessary  thing  now 
and  then,  but  I  think  that  when  we  are  at  the 
Lord's  Supper  we  should  think  of  Christ,  not  of 
ourselves."  * 

Note,  Now  each  of  these  four  aspects  of  the 
Lord's  Supper — the  Sacrificial,  the  Memorial,  the 
Family,  the  Personal  Conception  of  it — has  in  it  a 
truth  which  must  be  preserved.  The  enumeration 
is  not  exhaustive,  but  it  is  intended  to  guide  you 
in  your  conduct  of  the  service.     These  four  leading 

1  Matt.  26  :  21.  *  I  Cor.  II  :  28,  31.  3  "Ljfe,"  p.  jjg. 


THE   LORD'S  SUPPER   SERVICE  235 

thoughts — that  Christ  was  the  sacrifice  for  our  sins  ; 
that  he  is  to  come  again  the  second  time  ;  that  we 
are  not  solitary  but  in  fellowship  with  the  great 
host  of  believers  the  world  over,  and  indeed  also 
all  time  through  ;  and  that  each  one  of  us  is  per- 
sonally accountable  to  God  and  therefore  needs  to 
examine  himself,  must  be  kept  in  mind  as  the  serv- 
ice proceeds.  They  will  decide  for  you  the  choice 
of  hymns  to  be  sung,  of  passages  of  Scripture  to  be 
repeated,  and  they  will  also  lead  you  into  profitable 
lines  of  thought  in  prayer  and  address.  So  far  as 
possible  from  first  to  last  preserve  the  very  words 
of  Scripture  in  all  parts  of  the  Lord's  Supper  service. 

II.  We  now  pass  on  to  consider  the  Order  of 
Service. 

Let  us  premise  that  where  it  is  usual  to  give 
an  invitation  to  other  than  the  memibers  of  the 
local  church  to  remain  and  partake  of  the  Supper, 
it  should  be  so  framed  as  to  avoid  any  unnecessary 
exclusiveness  ;  and  also  let  us  recommend  that  the 
congregation  be  given  to  understand  that  they  will 
be  welcomed  as  spectators,  for  in  this  way  the 
•y^  service  h_as  often  proved  a  means  of  grace.  The 
giving  of  the  hand  of  fellowship  to  new  members 
is  no  part  of  the  Lord's  Supper  proper.  It  is  to 
be  regretted  that  it  is  not  done  at  the  preliminary 
church  meeting,  when  more  time  could  be  devoted 
to  welcoming  the  new-comers  and  acquainting  them 
with  their  brethren.  Probably  very  early  in  the 
history  of  the  Christian  church  the  beautiful  prac- 
tice arose  of  connecting  the  Supper   with  gifts  to 


236  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

the  Lord's  poor.  Nowhere  else  can  this  beneficence 
be  more  fittingly  shown,  although  it  did  not  enter 
into  the  service  as  originally  instituted. 

The  Lord's  Supper  service  divides  itself  into  two 
parts. 

I.  The  Breaking  of  Bread.  Begin  v/ith  a  period 
of  silence  ;  discourage  whispering  or  any  noise.  Do 
not  speak  until  all  the  people  have  come  together. 
In  case  you  think  well,  you  may  have  a  hymn  at 
this  point,  but  if  you  do  so,  let  its  character  be  in 
close  keeping  with  the  service  to  follow. 

To  this  quiet  time  succeeds  the  prayer,  which 
should  be  largely  one  of  thanksgiving,  and,  after  it, 
break  the  bread.  There  is  no  reason  why  it  should 
not  have  been  prepared  for  use  beforehand.  The 
minister  does  not  assume  the  place  of  Christ  nor 
does  he  pretend  to  any  priestly  authority.  At  the 
Communion  service  in  Mr.  Spurgeon's  Tabernacle 
the  deacons  and  visiting  brethren,  who  were  seated 
at  the  upper  table,  took  a  part  in  breaking  the 
bread. 

Having  made  the  bread  ready,  use  the  forms  of 
distribution,  not  the  words  of  Jesus  necessarily, 
which  were  peculiarly  sacred  to  his  use,  but  rather 
those  of  Paul.^  This  is  followed  by  the  distribution 
of  the  bread  to  the  minister  and  people.  While  this 
is  being  done  you  may  with  advantage,  in  a  sub- 
dued but  distinct  voice,  recite  suitable  passages  of 
Scripture.  Or  you  can  often,  with  equal  advan- 
tage, have  this  part  of  the  service  conducted  in  per- 

1 1  Cor.  II  :  2}. 


THE   LORD'S  SUPPER  SERVICE  237 

feet  silence.  The  deacons  are  next  to  be  served, 
and  with  this  the  first  part  of  the  service  concludes, 
hi  some  churches  it  is  the  custom  for  the  communi- 
cants to  retain  the  bread  in  their  hands  until  all  are 
served,  and,  at  the  words  **  Eat  ye  all  of  it,"  ^ 
spoken  by  the  pastor,  all  partake  together.  The 
deacon  in  charge  should  now  remove  or  set  on  one 
side  the  platters  of  bread  and  prepare  the  table  for 
the  succeeding  part  of  the  service. 

2.  The  Passing  of  the  Cup.  Whether  the  earlier 
custom  of  using  a  few  large  flagons  be  maintained, 
or  the  later  innovation  of  "the  individual  cup," — 
and  in  respect  to  which  much  may  be  said  on  either 
side, — in  eitlier  case  the  minister  should  prepare  the 
cups  for  distribution,  and,  everything  being  in  dis- 
creet and  seemly  order,  he  may  offer  the  second 
prayer.  This  will  naturally  deal  more  largely  than 
the  first  with  the  two  thoughts  associated  with  it 
by  Jesus  himself  :  '^  "  This  cup  is  the  new  covenant 
in  my  blood,  even  that  which  is  poured  out  for 
you,"  and  "  I  will  drink  it  new  with  you  in  my 
Father's  kingdom."  Then,  having  repeated  the 
form  from  i  Cor.  11  :  25,  with,  occasionally,  the 
addition  of  Paul's  own  words  which  follow,*  give 
the  cups  to  the  deacons  to  be  distributed  by  them, 
and,  after  this  is  done,  rise  to  receive  the  cups 
when  they  are  returned  to  the  table.  Having 
passed  the  cups  to  the  deacons,  pause  for  a  few 
moments,  and  then  let  the  collection  for  the  neces- 

1  Rom.  12  :  5  ;  I  Cor.  10  :  17. 
^  Luke  22  :  20 ;  Matt.  26  :  29.  ^  i  Cor.  11  :  26-28. 


238  PUBLIC   WORSHIP 

sary  expenses  of  the  service  and  for  the  church 
poor  be  taken.  To  the  collection  sliould  succeed 
a  hymn.  Selt-ct  it  with  care.  Do  not  have  any 
instrumental  music,  and  still  less  an  anthem.^  Such 
hymns  as  "According  to  thy  gracious  word" 
(Montgomery)  ;  "By  Christ  redeemed,  in  Christ 
restored  "  (Rawson)  ;  "  Come,  let  us  join  our 
cheerful  songs  "  (Watts)  ;  "  Come,  thou  Fount  of 
every  blessing"  (Robinson);  "How  sweet  and 
awful  is  the  place"  (Watts);  "Jesus,  the  very 
thought  of  thee  "  (Bernard)  ;  "  There  is  a  fountain 
filled  with  blood"  (Cowper),  may  be  commended.^ 

Conclude  the  service  in  a  brief  prayer  or  bene- 
diction. The  custom  of  not  dismissing  the  congre- 
gation at  all,  but  saying  only,  "  When  they  had 
sung  a  hymn  they  went  out,"  is  a  piece  of  assump- 
tion. It  is  to  endeavor  to  reproduce  the  first  Sup- 
per. The  hymn  which  Jesus  and  his  disciples  sang 
was  in  all  probability  "the  last  part  of  the  Hallel, 
or  great  Hallel,  which  consisted  of  Psalms  115- 
118,"  and,  to  be  consistent,  the  modern  ritualist 
should  use  these  psalms  only  for  his  concluding 
hymn.^  It  is  to  be  remembered  also  that  Jesus 
and  his  disciples  "  went  forth  over  the  brook  Kid- 
ron,"*  to  the  garden,  the  agony,  the  betrayal,  the 
night  of  awful  suffering,  for  all  of  which  we  have 
no  parallel. 

After  the  service,  should  time  permit,  the  minis- 


1 "  Dale's  Life,"  p.  552. 

2  Heb.  13:15;  2  Thess.  i  :  10,  12  ;  Jude  24,  25  ;  Rev.  i  :  5,  6. 

8 See  Geikie's  "  Life  of  Christ,"  Vol.  IL,  pp.  504,  505.  *Matt.  26  :  30. 


THE   LORD'S  SUPPER   SERVICE  239 

ter  may  stand  at  the  door  to  shake  hands  with  the 
people  as  they  go  out  and  to  welcome  brethren 
from  other  churclies  who  happen  to  be  present. 

III.  Something  should  be  said,  at  this  point,  as  to 
the  time  for  holding  the  Lord's  Supper  service. 

It  is  very  much  to  be  regretted  that  so  often  the 
Communion  follows  immediately  the  morning  serv- 
ice and  precedes  the  session  of  the  Sunday-school. 
Nothing  has  tended  more  to  the  neglect  or  the 
inadequate  treatment  of  this  sacred  service  than 
that  arrangement.  Where  possible  the  service 
should  be  entirely  separate.  The  afternoon  is  a 
very  suitable  time.  Churches  which  observe  the 
Supper  less  frequently  than  do  we  set  apart  an 
entire  Sunday  morning  for  it.  Occasionally  by  all 
means  have  it  appointed  for  Sunday  evening.  The 
close  of  the  old  year  in  this  way  is  very  solemn.  ^ 
And  you  are  wise  also  to  fmd  a  time  once  or  twice 
in  the  year  when  those  who  cannot  be  present  in 
the  morning  can  attend.  Where  the  Communion  \ 
is  held  once  a  month  in  the  morning  let  the  whole 
service  be  harmonious  ;  let  the  subject  of  your  ser- 
mon or  address  be  experimental,  closely  connected 
with  the  fellowship  of  the  believer  with  his  Saviour. 

The  Scripture  precedent  is  entirely  in  favor  of 
weekly  Communion.  Thus  was  it  observed  by  the 
apostles  and  early  Christians.  Such  theologians  as 
Calvin  and  John  Owen  favor  it.  Mr.  Spurgeon, 
with  all  his  great  work  concentrating  on  Sunday, 
yet  observed  the  Lord's  Supper  on  each  Lord's 
Day.     This    is    becoming   customary    with    some 


240  PUBLIC   WORSHIP 

churches,  and  it  may  be  hoped  that  ultimately  it 
will  prevail  with  all.  On  the  first  Sunday  in  the 
month  there  should  then  be  an  afternoon  service, 
occupying  a  full  hour,  and  on  the  remaining  Sun- 
days in  the  month  the  Supper  should  be  observed 
after  the  morning  or  evening  service,  as  may  be 
most  convenient.* 

IV.  hi  conclusion  I  would  counsel  : 

I,  Avoid  all  controversies  as  to  the  wine,  it  is 
only  the  slave  to  the  letter  who  will  insist  that  the 
wine  must  be  of  the  same  character  as  that  used  at 
the  first  Lord's  Supper.  The  spirit  of  Christ  will 
lead  us  to  abstain  from  giving  any  offense  to  our 
brethren  or  putting  in  their  way  a  stumbling-block. 
The  symbolism  of  brotherhood  has  certainly  been 
marred  by  the  substitution  of  many  cups  for  one, 
preferable  though  that  is  in  other  respects.  And 
so  the  unfermented  wine  may  not  convey  the  same 
meaning  that  the  fermented  does.  But  we  do  not 
pretend  to  be  literalists,  otherwise  we  should  use 
only  unleavened  bread,  and  possibly  should  con- 
tinue (as  did  some  of  our  forefathers)  to  practise 
feet-washing  as  a  preliminary  to  the  Lord's  Supper. 
Mr.  Spurgeon  surrendered  his  early  prejudice  in 
favor  of  fermented  wine,  and  was  only  disappointed 
when  an  analysis  of  the  wine  which  he  substituted 
for  it  revealed  nineteen  per  cent,  of  alcohol.^  Dr. 
Joseph  Parker  would  prefer  water  to  "the  concoc- 
tions by  which,  in  some  instances,  wine  has  been 

1  "  Life  of  Adolph  Sapher,"  p.  146. 
2  "  Reminiscences  of  C.  H.  Spurgeon,"  Williams,  p.  40. 


THE   LORD'S   SUPPER   SERVICE  241 

displaced."  In  parts  of  the  world  where  wine  of 
any  sort  is  unknown  the  use  of  milk  has  been 
advocated.  In  China  a  missionary  bishop,  finding 
neither  bread  nor  wine  to  be  ordinary  articles  of 
food,  suggested  rice-cake  and  tea.  In  Uganda, 
Bishop  Tucker  authorized  the  use  of  plantain  bread 
and  plantain  wine.  It  will  be  enough  if  you  see  to 
it  that  whatever  is  used  is  wholesome  as  well  as 
unfermented. 

2.  Carefully  instruct  the  deacons  in  their  duties. 
In  no  service  should  there  be  closer  attention  paid 
to  what  is  seemly.  The  very  simplicity  of  the 
ordinance  among  us  is  an  added  reason  for  pro- 
priety and  decorum. 

3.  Throughout  the  service  preserve  a  cheerful 
and  yet  solemn  demeanor.  "The  Lord's  Supper 
ought  to  be  administered  with  exultation  and  tri- 
umph and  lofty  cheer.  The  bread  is  broken  indeed, 
but  the  body  it  typifies  is  raised  in  glory  ;  the  wine 
is  poured  out,  but  it  is  to  be  drunk  as  in  the  king- 
dom of  heaven."  Not  only  is  the  meaning  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  missed  "  when  it  is  clothed  with 
sadness,  but  it  is  nullified  in  its  effect,  for  there  is 
no  growth  in  Christian  character  except  in  an  at- 
mosphere of  light  and  joy.  It  was  at  the  Supper 
that  Christ  said  most  of  his  joy  and  its  fullness. "  ^ 

4.  The  Communion  service  may  be  made  the  oc- 
Jcasion  for  mustering  the  church,  rallying  its  forces, 

land  appealing  to  it  for  renewed  Christian  activity. 
'"  Here,"  as  Phillips  Brooks  said,  "  we  can  meet  in 

1  Dr.  T.  T.  Munger. 

Q 


242  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

a  great  host  at  the  table  of  the  Lord,  and  own  our- 
selves his  children,  and  claim  the  strength  of  his 
bread  and  wine,  and  ihen  go  out  with  calm,  strong, 
earnest  faces  to  our  work."  With  Phillips  Brooks 
we  may  conclude,  as  the  Communion  service  lifts 
up  its  voice  and  sings  in  triumph  the  great  anthem 
of  dedicated  human  life  :  "  Ah,  my  friend,  that, 
nothing  less  than  that,  is  the  real  Holy  Communion 
of  the  church  of  the  living  God." 

5.  By  all  means  endeavor  always  to  be  at  home 
with  your  own  people  at  the  monthly  Communion 
service.  After  an  absence  from  home,  Matthew 
Henry  writes :  "I  never  had  been  away  so  much 
as  one  first  Lord's  Day  in  an)^  month  till  now  since 
coming  to  Chester  twenty-four  years  ago." 

6.  I  would  strongly  recommend  some  system  by 
which  attendance  at  the  Communion  can  be  regis- 
tered. The  cards  in  the  pev/  in  which  each  person 
— whether  a  regular  or  an  occasional  communicant 
— enters  his  name  and  address  are  useful.  Much 
simpler  is  it  to  furnish  each  member  of  the  church 
with  twelve  tickets  at  the  commencement  of  the 
year,  requesting  that  one  ticket  each  month  should 
be  put  into  the  collection  box.  Then,  by  means  of 
a  book  properly  ruled  for  the  twelve  Sundays  in  the 
year,  you  can  keep  account  of  the  attendance  of 
every  member  of  your  church.  This  will  be  found 
invaluable  as  a  basis  for  pastoral  visiting. 

7.  Frequently  in  the  course  of  your  regular  min- 
istry preach  upon  subjects  bearing  on  the  Lord's 
Supper  service. 


THE   LORD'S  SUPPER  SERVICE  243 

For  the  sacrificial  aspect  of  the  Supper  we  sug- 
gest such  topics  as  :  "  The  Remembrance  of  Jesus  " 
(Luke  22  :  19)  ;  "  The  Food  of  the  Believer  "  (John 
4  :  34) ;  for  the  memorial  aspect  :  "  The  Blessed 
Hope,"  "  The  Temporary  Character  of  the  Lord's 
Supper";  for  the  family  aspect :"  Christian  Fel- 
lowship," "Separation  from  the  World,"  "The 
Vine  and  the  Branches,"  "Brethren  in  Christ" 
(Col.  I  :  2),  "Eating  and  Drinking  with  Christ" 
(Acts  10  :  41);  and  for  the  personal  aspect :  "Self- 
examination"  (i  Cor.  II  :  28),  "Bitter  Herbs" 
(Exod.  12:8),  "Personal  Union  with  Christ," 
"Causes  for  Personal  Thankfulness"  (Ps.  116: 
12,  13). 


XIV 
THE  PRAYER  MEETING 


SUMMARY 


I.  In  General. 

1.  The  prayer  meeting  the  pulse  of  the  church. 

2.  Minor  details  to  be  carefully  attended  to. 

3.  The  order  of  service. 

II.  CHARACTERISTICS. 

1.  Should  be  spiritual  and  social. 

2.  Let  cheerfulness  be  the  prevailing  tone. 

3.  Make  the  prayer  meeting  business-like. 

III.  MANAGEMENT. 

1.  Never  lose  personal  control  over  the  meeting. 

2.  Let  the  exercises  be  marked  by  life  and  movement. 

IV.  THE  PRAYERS. 

1.  There  should  be  more  prayer  than  conference. 

2.  Features  of  the  prayer-meeting  prayer. 

V.  THE  SINGING. 

VI.  THE  ADDRESS. 

Should  be  :  i.  Early  in  evening.    2.  Extemporaneous.    3. 
Biblical.    4.  On  one  subject.    5.  Keep  list  of  topics.    6. 
Announce  topics. 
CONCLUSION. 


XIV 
THE    PRAYER    MEETING 

I.  Any  treatise  on  Public  Worship  which  said 
nothing  as  to  the  church  prayer  meeting  would,  by 
virtue  of  that  omission,  be  imperfect.  In  our  sim- 
ple polity  it  occupies  a  conspicuous  position.  We 
find  no  substitute  for  it  in  any  other  kind  of  service. 
The  whole  church  engaged  in  prayer  and  confer- 
ence is  the  ideal  toward  which  it  strives.  From 
just  such  a  meeting  was  the  Christian  church  born,^ 
for,  but  for  the  gathering  of  the  faithful  in  the  upper 
room  in  Jerusalem  where  "all  continued  with  one 
accord  in  prayer  and  supplication,"  the  day  of  Pen- 
tecost had  not  "fully  come,"  the  sermon  of  Peter 
might  never  have  been  preached,  and  the  picture 
of  the  early  fellowship  to  which  the  Lord  added 
day  by  day  those  that  were  being  saved,  had 
never  furnished  us  the  model  for  our  church  life 
to-day.^ 

I.  From  that  first  prayer  meeting  onward  to  the 
present  hour,  however  much  it  may  have  changed 
its  form,  this  service  has  continually  marked,  by 
its  use  or  disuse,  by  the  formalism  which  has  robbed 
it  of  its  purpose  or  the  fire  of  devotion  which  has 
radiated  from  its  living  heart,  the  condition  of  the 

1  Acts  I  :  13,  14.  '  Acts  2  :  46,  47. 

247 


248  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

church.  The  health  of  a  church  to-day  can  better 
be  gauged  by  its  prayer  meeting  than  by  any  other 
one  service.  It  is  therefore  no  mere  commonplace 
to  say  that  the  prayer  meeting  is  the  pulse  of  the 
church.  It  is  a  commonplace  only  because  it  is  so 
true.  For  this  reason  the  minister  should  study  to 
have,  and  to  deserve  the  reputation  for  having, 
good  congregational  prayer  meetings.  The  secret 
of  the  continued  prosperity  of  many  churches  may 
be  found  here.  The  Monday  evening  prayer  meet- 
ing at  the  Metropolitan  Tabernacle,  at  which  Mr. 
Spurgeon  himself  always  presided,  "was  attended 
by  upward  of  two  thousand  of  his  members."  His 
own  counsel  is,  "Always  insist  on  the  congregation 
coming  to  the  prayer  meeting."  We  should  not  be 
anxious  for  large  numbers,  so  much  as  for  the 
general  attendance  of  the  members  of  the  church. 
The  family  prayer  at  home,  and  the  church  prayer 
at  this  meeting,  are  the  two  most  powerful  pre- 
servatives of  vigorous  life  in  any  Christian  fellow- 
ship. Well  does  Dr.  Robertson  Nicoll  urge  the 
importance  of  this  weekly  gathering :  "There  are 
some  who  believe  our  Lord  said,  *  Where  two  or 
three  thousand  are  met  together  there  will  I  be  in 
the  midst  of  them  ?  '  But  he  didn't.  He  said  two 
or  three,  because  he  foresaw  there  would  be  often 
only  two  or  three.  Two  people  make  a  prayer 
meeting,  and  for  a  very  good  reason.  There  are 
always  three  where  there  are  two.  He  is  there 
who  spoke  the  word.  You  cannot  speak  without 
speaking  in  his  ear.     He  will  keep  his  tryst.     Is 


THE   PRAYER  MEETING  249 

there  any  church  where  you  cannot  get  the  people 
together  in  that  number  ?  Teach  the  people  what 
prayer  will  do  and  they  will  find  their  way  to  the 
prayer  meeting  in  time.  It  is  the  meeting  of  the 
church  for  hard,  close  wrestling  with  God.  Inter- 
cession waits  as  deep  as  love,  takes  upon  itself  the 
anxiety,  the  fears,  the  loneliness  of  the  one  who  is 
loved.  In  intercession  we  have  largely  to  answer 
our  own  prayers.  When  Scotland  was  dead  with 
Moderatism,  there  were  in  the  Highlands  little 
praying  societies,  without  any  minister,  who  met 
together  to  pray  that  God  would  revive  his  own 
people  ;  and  God  did  it  and  will  do  it." 

2.  If  you  are  wise  you  will,  in  this  matter  of  the 
church  prayer  meeting,  pay  personal  attention  to 
minor  matters  of  detail.  Let  the  room  in  which 
the  meeting  is  held  be  some  other  than  the  au- 
dience room  of  the  church.  Let  it  be  too  small 
rather  than  too  large  for  the  congregation.  Keep 
the  people  close  together.  Bring  those  who  come 
early  well  forward.  Between  yourself  and  them 
let  there  be  as  little  vacant  space  as  possible. 
There  is  sympatliy  in  contact.^  The  advantage  of 
the  prayer  meeting  over  the  public  service  is  that 
you  get  closer  to  the  people.  The  influence  which 
comes  from  informal  association  has  freer  play. 
"  If,"  says  a  pastor,  "I  must  choose  one  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  the  other,  between  the  pulpit  and  the 
dais  of  the  conference  room,  give  me  the  confer- 
ence room.     On  the  latter,  I  and  my  audience  are 

1  Matt,  8:3;  Luke  10  :  23. 


250  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

ten  feet  nearer  to  each  other  in  more  senses  than 
one."  There  is  no  reason  why  you  should  stay 
on  the  platform,  even,  if  it  will  promote  ease  and 
a  readier  flow  of  brotherly  feeling,  come  down  and 
sit  among  the  people. 

Let  the  meeting  begin  promptly  on  the  hour ;  let 
it  last  one  hour,  and  unless  there  is  some  special 
reason  for  prolonging  it,  close  on  the  minute.  Be- 
cause Horace  Bushnell  was  governed  by  a  military 
promptness  and  punctuality,  business  men  were 
willing  to  give  the  hour  for  the  week  evening  meet- 
ing. "  Rain  or  shine,  audience  or  no  audience,  the 
service  began  punctually  on  the  minute,  and  closed 
promptly  at  the  end  of  the  hour."  ^ 

3.  As  a  rule,  it  seems  best  to  preserve  a  uniform 
order  of  service.  The  first  quarter  of  an  hour  may 
be  prefatory.  Sing  two  or  three  hymns ;  pray 
yourself,  or  call  on  some  one  whom  you  can  trust 
to  do  so  profitably.  Let  prayer  and  praise  strike 
the  keynote  for  the  meeting.  Another  quarter  of 
an  hour  may  be  devoted  to  the  reading  of  the  Bible 
and  the  address.  Do  not  read  more  than  ten  or 
fifteen  verses.  Let  the  address  be  carefully  thought 
out,  but  do  not  have  any  notes  with  you.  Con- 
tinuous expositions,  week  by  week,  taking  a  few 
verses  at  a  time,  are  very  much  to  be  commended. 

11.  Passing  now  to  the  characteristics  of  the 
prayer  meeting, 

I.  Observe  that  it  should  be  pre-eminently 
spiritual    and    social.     Of    all    meetings  it    should 

1  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Horace  Bushnell,"  p.  292. 


THE   PRAYER   MEETING  251 

be  the  one  which  certainly  feeds  the  spiritual  life. 
And  it  should  be  homelike,  natural,  genial,  friendly. 
A  visitor  at  the  Metropolitan  Tabernacle,  when 
Mr.  Spurgeon  presided,  was  "particularly  struck 
with  the  freedom  from  all  formality  and  the  family 
feeling  which  pervaded  the  meeting.  The  pastor 
and  people  seemed  thoroughly  knit  together  in  the 
bonds  of  love."  The  prayer  meeting  is  the  church 
at  home,  it  gives,  as  no  other  service  does,  what 
an  eminent  Episcopalian  desired  when  he  said,  "  I 
long  for  acts  of  social  worship."^  Mr.  Spurgeon 
confessed  that  he  "  would  rather  a  prayer  meeting 
should  be  a  kind  of  celestial  *  free  and  easy  '  than 
tlie  dull  things  some  were."  hi  advising  a  regular 
order  of  service  I  would  not  be  understood  to  en- 
courage a-  lifeless  uniformity.  No  two  prayer 
meetings  should  be  alike.  Monotony  kills  a  meet- 
ing as  certainly  as  a  dead  level  of  road  kills  a  horse. 
The  soul  as  much  as  the  body  or  the  mind  covets 
variety.  Let  every  chord  be  made  to  resound. 
Have  for  your  aim  the  resolve  of  the  psalmist :  "  I 
will  sing  a  new  song  unto  thee,  O  God  ;  upon  a 
psaltery  of  ten  strings  will  1  sing  praises  unto  thee." 
Mr.  Moody  gives  sound  advice  in  compact  form, 
when  he  says,  "  Let  the  minister  get  to  the  meet- 
ing awhile  before  the  time  for  beginning,  and  shake 
hands  with  persons  as  they  come  in.  Sit  close 
together,  up  around  the  leader.  Give  out  the  sub- 
ject of  the  meeting  in  advance.  Get  all  to  take 
part.     Let  there  be  variety  ;  a  praise,  promise,  or 

'  Prof.  Adam  Sedgwick,  "Life,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  461. 


252  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

witness  meeting  occasionally.  Do  not  let  the 
meeting  get  into  the  hands  of  the  few."  Equally  to 
the  point  is  the  advice  of  Dr.  Kerr  Tupper  :  "  Open 
the  services  occasionally  by  repeating  in  unison  the 
books  of  the  Bible  from  Genesis  to  Revelation  ; 
regularly  have  a  Scripture  lesson  read  responsively 
by  pastor  and  people  ;  on  some  occasions  leave  the 
platform  and  sit  among  the  people,  thus  leaving  the 
meeting  with  no  leader  but  the  Holy  Spirit." 

2.  Let  the  prevailing  tone  be  one  of  cheerfulness. 
To  this  end  be  cheerful  yourself.  Do  not  allow 
yourself  to  scold  or  to  complain.  Give  no  counte- 
nance to  croakers  and  chronic  grumblers.  Sup- 
press any  disposition  to  engage  in  controversy. 
Some  prayer  meetings  have  a  tendency  to  degene- 
rate into  debating  societies.  The  contagious  cheer- 
fulness of  Mr.  Spurgeon  found  vent  in  kindly  humor 
which  "  did  not  in  any  way  mar  the  solemnity  of 
the  meeting,  but  rather  imparted  a  liveliness  to  it 
which  was  somewhat  charming."  It  is  only  half 
the  truth  to  say  that  "  religion  never  was  designed 
to  make  our  pleasures  less."  The  atmosphere  of 
genial  cheerfulness  which  marks  the  happy  home 
should  be  diffused  through  the  prayer  meeting. 

3.  And  yet  it  is  well  to  add  that  you  should  do 
all  in  your  power  to  make  the  prayer  meeting 
business-like.  Have  a  distinct  purpose  in  view. 
"The  New  Testament  chroniclers  of  the  church 
during  the  first  fourteen  years  of  its  existence  re- 
port three  great  meetings,  three  only/     What  were 

1  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  Chap.  2,  4,  and  12. 


THE  PRAYER  MEETING  253 

they  ?  Meetings  for  business  ?  YeS,  because  they 
were  meetings  for  prayer.  Tlie  first  was  the  Pen- 
tecostal prayer  meeting ;  the  second  was  a  prayer 
meeting  that  the  church  might  have  power  to  meet 
the  world  when  the  world  began  to  threaten  ;  the 
third  was  to  rescue  Peter  from  prison  at  a  crisis 
when  it  seemed  that  the  church  could  not  do  with- 
out him."  ^ 

The  aim  will  be  attained  if  you  know  the  mate- 
rial at  your  disposal,  in  order  to  do  this  you  may 
make  a  careful  canvass  of  your  church  and  ascer- 
tain who  will  endeavor  to  be  present  and  what  part 
each  one  will  take.  It  will  further  strengthen  this 
conception  of  prayer  as  a  practical  force  if  you  now 
and  then  narrate  answers  to  prayers  in  your  own 
experience  and  call  for  such  testimonials  from 
others.  You  will  soon  come  to  believe  that  no- 
where else  in  all  the  world  is  the  response  quicker 
or  clearer  than  it  is  to  direct,  earnest,  Christian 
prayer. 

III.  Let  us  now  consider  the  management  of  the 
Prayer  Meeting. 

I.  My  first  point  here  is  that  the  leader  must 
lead.  Either  death  or  disorder  is  likely  to  be  the 
fate  of  the  meeting  which  is  under  no  control.  The 
Holy  Spirit  does  indeed  guide,  but  he  is  the  God 
not  of  confusion  but  of  order.  He  was  never  more 
manifestly  present  than  on  the  day  of  Pentecost, 
but  he  worked  through  Peter  as  the  voice  of  the 
apostles   and   their  leader.     You   may  throw   the 

1  Dr.  Charles  Stanford. 


254  PUBLIC   WORSHIP 

meeting  open,  but  you  must  not  throw  the  meet- 
ing away. 

Be  prepared  for  unforeseen  emergencies.  The 
unexpected  is  more  likely  to  happen  in  a  meeting 
where  there  are  many  who  will  speak  than  at  a 
service  which  you  alone  conduct.  There  will  be 
times  when  the  subject  which  you  suggest  will  be 
evidently  superseded  in  the  general  will  of  the 
people  by  some  other  topic  that  a  later  speaker  may 
open  up.  The  current  of  the  meeting  flows  along 
in  the  channel  of  the  river,  not  the  canal.  Let  it 
flow.  The  prayer  meeting,  like  the  God  whose 
blessing  it  seeks,  fulfills  itself  in  many  ways. 

The  democratic  character  of  the  gathering  leaves 
you  in  a  measure  at  the  mercy  of  interruption  from 
speakers  who  may  be  good  men  but  are  not  always 
wise.  Aimless  things  will  be  said  and  foolish  things 
will  be  done.  You  will  need  to  restrain  with  good 
temper,  but  with  firmness,  the  incursions  of  those 
who  hinder  rather  than  help.  There  may  possibly 
be  some  forward  person  whose  reputation  in  the 
community  is  unsavory.  In  extreme  cases  of  this 
sort  I  have  known  the  deacons  request  him  to  be 
silent.  But  the  more  frequent  foes  to  the  prayer 
meeting  are  men  who  have  no  savor  to  speak  of 
and  nevertheless  speak.  Their  words  are  flat, 
stale,  and  unprofitable.  They  illustrate  the  dis- 
tinction between  discourse  and  discursiveness.  At 
other  times  the  unprofitable  brother — or  sister — is 
afflicted  with  a  contagious  melancholy,  or  he  is 
always  on  the  opposite  side  to  every  one  else,  and 


THE   PRAYER  MEETING  255 

persists  through  the  medium  of  prayer  or  remarks 
in  bringing  in  a  minority  report.  The  quiet  pool  in 
the  river  is  apt  to  be  the  harbor  of  refuge  for  the 
crooked  stick,  which  floats  in  there  and  there  re- 
mains. Were  the  river  always  in  flood  this  would 
not  happen.  Keep  the  meeting  moving  and  the 
tide  at  flood  and  you  will  not  suffer  from  the  stag- 
nant brother.  While  he  is  coming  another  will 
step  down  before  him.  Nor  should  you  hesitate 
to  speak  about  the  matter  if  prayers  and  remarks 
'become  prosy  and  too  long.  There  may  come  a 
time  when  it  is  even  necessary  to  put  the  unprofit- 
able speaker  down.  Not  until  he  has  been  pri- 
vately remonstrated  with  should  this  be  done.  It 
will  be  likely  to  offend  and  perhaps  alienate  him, 
and  therefore  it  should  be  your  last  resort.  Yet 
there  are  occasions  when  the  words  of  Caiaphas 
carry  a  truth  which  needs  to  be  laid  to  heart,  occa- 
sions, that  is,  when  it  is  expedient  that  one  man 
suffer  and  that  the  whole  meeting  perish  not. 

2.  What  has  just  been  said  will  prepare  the  way 
for  a  further  point.  Let  all  the  exercises  be  charac- 
terized by  life.  They  must  move.  Pauses  are  to 
be  avoided.  Start  a  hymn,  call  on  some  one  to 
pray.  Ask  for  texts  from  the  Bible  or  verses  from 
favorite  hymns.  Get  the  young  people  to  take 
part.  The  Puritan  maxim,  that  they  should  be 
seen  but  not  heard,  does  not  hold  good  here.  Try 
to  bring  out  latent  power.  If  you  do  not  think  it 
is  there,  wait  until  the  meeting  is  dismissed  and 
listen  to  the  tied  tongues  that  are  then  loosed.    Doc- 


256  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

tor  Cuyler  is  within  the  mark  when  he  says  :  "  It  is 
perfectly  possible  for  at  least  four-fifths  of  all  who 
attend  devotional  and  social  services  to  take  part  in 
them  if  they  will  do  just  two  things.  First,  let  them 
bring  something  to  the  meeting,  and,  secondly,  let 
them  ask  God  to  help  them  out  with  it,"  It  is  well 
now  and  then  to  ask  a  number  of  those  who  are 
constant  attendants  at  the  prayer  meeting  to  take 
part.  See  them  previously  and  tell  them  what  the 
subject  for  the  evening  is  to  be.  If  women  are  in 
the  habit  of  speaking  and  praying  at  this  service  it 
may  be  kind  to  give  them  a  few  hints  as  to  how  to 
make  their  voices  audible.  There  may  be  brethren 
and  sisters  to  whom  this  does  not  apply,  but  when 
persons  really  speak  to  the  profit  of  the  gathering 
it  is  as  well  that  they  should  learn  how  to  so  speak 
as  to  be  heard. 

By  all  means  be  on  the  watch  at  the  prayer 
meeting  for  symptoms  of  a  revival.  Often  here  is 
where  it  starts.  The  fire  kindles  first  at  the  heart 
and  thence  spreads  outward.  A  good  motto  for 
the  prayer  meeting — you  may  well  have  it  printed 
and  hung  in  a  conspicuous  place  and  now  and  again 
refer  to  it — is  this  : 

Carried  on  by  Everybody, 

Monopolized  by  Nobody, 

Making  every  one  present  a  Somebody. 

IV.  As  to  the  prayers  at  the  prayer  meeting. 
I.  We  would  first  urge  that  as  a  rule  there  should 
be  more  prayer  than  conference.     So  Robert  Hall 


THE   PRAYER  MEETING  257 

said,  "There  should  be  less  speaking  and  more 
prayer  ;  that  is  the  only  thing  which  has  power 
with  God.  I  don't  like  so  much  parade  and  osten- 
tation." The  temptation  to  put  speaking  in  the 
place  of  prayer  is  older  than  the  days  of  Robert 
Hall,  In  the  British  Museum,  London,  there  is 
preserved  an  old  paper  on  which  is  printed  a  proc- 
lamation, dated  the  second  year  of  Edward  the 
Sixth's  reign,  and  which  orders  that  all  preachers 
whatsoever  shall  for  a  certain  specified  period  stop 
their  preaching  and  instead  thereof  take  to  praying. 
The  prayer  meetings  of  the  early  church  seem  to 
have  been  prayer  meetings  indeed.^ 

The  warning  uttered  by  Robert  Hall  suggests 
that  the  leader  should  discourage  in  himself  and  in 
others  the  excessive  egotism  which  mars  so  many 
prayer  meetings.  "  The  personal  testimony  of  a 
saved  man  is  sometimes  of  great  worth  and  has  a 
very  marked  effect  in  a  prayer  meeting,  especially 
when  given  with  evident  humility  and  with  no  savor 
of  boasting.  But  how  often  is  the  ego  projected 
into  prayers  and  testimonies  as  if  the  speaker  was 
the  prominent  figure  in  the  subject  and  not  the  man 
Christ  Jesus.  True  men,  men  of  the  right  Chris- 
tian type,  become  more  self-oblivious  as  their  spir- 
ituality increases,  and  no  word  of  pietistic  cant  is 
heard  from  their  lips.  As  the  carnal  ego  is  cruci- 
fied with  Christ  the  new  man  rises  into  life,  honor, 
and  grandeur."^  This  tendency  to  talk  about  self 
on  the  part  of  those  who  are  heard  in  the  prayer 

'  Acts  2  :  42 ;  4  :  31.  -  Dr.  P.  S.  Henson. 


258  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

meeting  can  often  be  checked  by  a  return  to  prayer 
rather  than  a  persistence  in  conference. 

2.  It  may  be  well  to  say  something  at  this  point 
about  the  peculiar  features  of  the  prayer  that  is 
most  suitable  at  this  meeting,  hi  case  you  your- 
self offer  the  first  prayer  let  it  be  stimulating  and 
inspiring.  Do  not  have  much  petition  in  this  prayer. 
Do  not  exhaust  the  list  of  things  to  be  prayed  for, 
and,  like  Isaac  Barrow  in  his  preaching,  leave 
nothing  for  him  who  comes  after.  The  prayers  in 
the  prayer  meeting  may  be  more  familiar  and  per- 
sonal than  those  in  the  public  service,  and  should 
be  short  and  to  the  point.  Doctor  Stanford  says  : 
"Why  trifle  with  Christ's  precious  time  ?  As  it 
is,  a  pastor  longing  for  the  power  which  alone  can 
make  the  truth  victorious,  but  which  the  church 
must  pray  for,  gives  notice  of  a  meeting  for  this 
special  purpose,  goes  to  it  with  an  intolerable  sense 
of  crisis  ;  then  it  often  happens  that  the  petitioner 
who  leads  off  the  meeting  is  totally  unable  to  alter 
mechanical  habits,  begins  an  adorative  discourse 
about  the  perfections  of  God  in  words  that  were 
once  glowing  coals  but  are  now  dead  cinders. 
Then  he  proceeds  in  his  tranquil  travels  through  a 
regular  succession  of  petitions  that  range  over 
everything,  until  at  last  he  reaches  the  final  word, 
and  so  brings  the  familiar  train  of  topics  to  a  sym- 
metrical close.  That  is  how  to  stamp  reality  out 
of  a  prayer  meeting  and  to  make  it  dull.  Dull  !  1 
should  think  it  is  dull.  Dull  to  sinners,  dull  to 
saints,  dull  to  man,  and  dull  to  God." 


THE   PRAYER   MEETING  259 

The  time  has  passed,  let  us  hope,  when  "two 
prayers  pretty  well  filled  up  the  time"  allotted  to 
this  part  of  the  meeting.  The  minister  who  records 
this  condition  of  things,  perhaps  fifty  years  ago, 
adds  :  "  We  had  among  us  some  worthy  old  men 
who  were  always  present  and  who  were  at  any 
time  good  for  twenty-five  minutes  apiece.  One  of 
my  good  old  friends — peace  be  to  his  memory — 
once  prayed  that  I  might  be  in  the  hands  of  the  Lord 
what  the  jawbone  was  in  the  hands  of  Samson, 
which,  considering  of  what  creature  the  jawbone 
had  been  a  part,  was  a  hit  at  my  plain-speaking."  ^ 

Sentence  prayers  are  often  very  profitable.  The 
shortest  prayers  in  Scripture  were  sometimes  the 
most  effective.  If  a  man  has  a  definite  aim  in 
prayer  he  will  not  be  long  in  getting  his  bearings 
and  discharging  his  gun.  Spurgeon  says:  "Long 
prayers  injure  prayer  meetings.  Fancy  a  man 
praying  for  twenty  minutes  and  then  asking  God 
to  forgive  his  shortcomings." 

Occasionally  it  is  well  to  have  distinct  seasons 
of  silent  prayer,  but  these  should  be  reserved  for 
times  of  intense  concentrated  feeling,  it  is  well 
that  we  should  learn,  with  David,  to  sit  before  the 
Lord,  and  with  him  to  commune  with  our  own 
hearts  and  be  still. ^ 

V.  Pay  special  attention  to  the  singing  at  the 
prayer  meeting.  You  should  have  much  of  it  and 
it  should  be  hearty  and  general.  "  if  Christians 
sang  more,  temptations  would  have  less  power,  the 

1 "  Life  of  Hugh  Stowell  Brown,"  p.  83.  -i  Chron.  17  :  i6- 


26o  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

feet  would  be  ligliter  in  the  sowing  and  reaping, 
there  would  be  more  sunlight  in  our  daily  pathways, 
and  the  church  would  easily  surmount  the  giant 
rocks  of  seeming  impossibilities.  Fill  the  prayer 
meeting  with  songs  of  praise  and  it  cannot  be  dull 
nor  lacking  in  the  fruits  of  comfort  and  inspiration. 
Not  a  hymn  of  four  or  five  verses,  but  one  verse  at 
a  time,  thrown  in  between  petition  and  remarks."  ^ 
To  be  able  yourself  to  sing  will  be  of  more  service 
at  the  prayer  meeting  than  anywhere  else,  but  in 
case  you  are  not  able,  you  should  have  some  one 
who  is  upon  whose  presence  you  can  confidently 
rely.  A  good  piano  or  chamber  organ  is  most  serv- 
iceable, and  yet  it  is  not  well  to  use  it  constantly. 
A  burst  of  impromptu  song^  or  a  hymn  sung  with  no 
accompaniment,  often  quickens  fervor  more  than  the 
instrument  can.  The  player  should  remain  at  the 
organ  throughout  the  service,  ready  to  strike  the 
keys  at  a  moment's  notice.  The  formality  of  sit- 
ting down  and  rising  up  with  each  hymn  on  the 
part  of  the  player  is  to  be  avoided. 

Within  reasonable  bounds  encourage  the  congre- 
gation to  call  for  favorite  hymns.  You  will  be 
fortunate  if  you  have  persons  present  who  have 
devotion  as  well  as  music  in  their  souls  and  who 
will  now  and  then  raise  a  hymn  without  any  an- 
nouncement. It  is  well  to  know  the  hymn  book 
thoroughly.  Take  pains  to  select  a  book  which  is 
neither  exclusively  wedded  to  the  old  hymns  nor 
entirely  absorbed  in  the  new.     The  old  solid  hymns 

1  Dr.  A.  E.  Kittredge. 


THE  PRAYER  MEETING  261 

should  be  retained.  We  may  have  gained  in  live- 
liness, but  we  have  lost  in  spiritual  power  by  set- 
ting them  aside  in  favor  of  songs  in  which,  too 
generally,  sentiment  is  mistaken  for  feeling  and  the 
words  are  made  secondary  to  the  tune.  Come  to 
the  meeting  with  a  list  of  hymns  suitable  to  your 
subject,  but  do  not  keep  to  it  at  all  closely.  It  is 
well  to  be  on  the  lookout  for  new  hymns  and  occa- 
sionally to  print  a  sheet  for  insertion  at  the  end  of 
the  book  in  use.  In  this  way  you  can  renew  your 
selection.  The  hymns  at  the  prayer  meeting  should 
be  bright  and  cheerful,  full  of  praise,  quickening 
the  joy  and  kindling  the  enthusiasm  of  the  wor- 
shipers. It  was  at  one  of  his  church  prayer  meet- 
ings that  Mr.  Spurgeon  said,  in  dealing  with  a 
request  for  prayer  from  some  troubled  Christian, 
"  The  devil  will  be  sure  to  bark  if  you  seek  Christ, 
but  he  cannot  bite.  Never  mind  the  bark.  Make 
music  of  it."  Atourprayer  meetings  many  atempted 
soul,  like  Christian  in  "Pilgrim's  Progress,"  escapes 
from  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  with  a  song. 
There  are  always  tired  men  and  women  who  come, 
often  at  personal  cost  to  themselves,  from  a  wear- 
ing day's  work,  and  frequently  a  song  will  do  more 
for  them  than  a  sermon. 

VI.  Coming  now  to  deal  with  the  address  which 
the  minister  delivers  at  the  prayer  meeting,  we 
may  counsel,  i.  That  it  come  early  in  the  evening. 
Oftener  than  not,  if  the  subject  is  a  happy  one,  it 
will  strike  the  keynote  for  the  whole  service.  By 
no  means  should  the  address  exceed  from  ten  to 


262  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

fifteen  minutes.  Many  a  meeting  is  killed  because 
the  leader  will  not  learn  to  deny  himself  in  this 
matter  of  length.  The  churches  which  show  a 
disposition  to  dispense  with  the  prayer  meeting  are 
the  churches  where  the  ministers  have  done  too 
much  talking,  appropriating  to  themselves  the  time 
which  belongs  of  right  to  all. 

2.  The  address  should  be  extemporaneous,  and 
yet  it  should  be  carefully  thought  out  beforehand. 
His  rare  impromptu  powers  led  Mr.  Spurgeon  to 
speak  without  preparation,  on  these  occasions,  and 
indeed  to  find  his  subject  after  coming  to  the  meet- 
ing. But  he  says,  "  I  restrict  myself  to  simple, 
homely  talk  about  the  elements  of  our  faith.  It  is 
of  no  use  to  rise  before  an  assembly  and  hope  to 
be  inspired  upon  subjects  of  which  one  knows 
nothing  ;  if  any  one  is  so  unwise,  the  result  will 
be  that,  as  he  knows  nothing,  he  will  probably  say 
it,  and  the  people  will  not  be  edified.  But  1  do  not 
see  why  a  man  cannot  speak  extemporaneously 
upon  a  subject  which  he  fully  understands."^ 

3.  The  address  should  be  biblical,  and  often  it 
will  be  wise  to  make  it  consist  entirely  of  a  running 
comment  upon  the  passage  of  Scripture  which  you 
read.  Gather  around  that  passage  parallel  texts, 
and  so  give  a  real  Bible  reading. 

4.  Keep  to  one  subject  only,  and  let  it  be  a  subject 
which  touches  on  "men's  business  and  bosoms." 
"  He  is  much  more  of  a  Christian  on  a  Wednesday 
than  on  a  Sunday,"  was  the  comment  which  one 

'  "Autobiography,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  365. 


THE  PRAYER  MEETING  263 

of  his  congregation  made  upon  a  minister  whose 
spiritual  power  was  most  conspicuous  at  his  week 
evening  services.  The  fact  was,  no  doubt,  that  he 
dealt  on  these  occasions  with  the  experiences  of  his 
people.  He  brought  his  materials  rather  from  the 
pastoral  visit  than  from  the  study  ;  the  book  from 
which  he  read  was  the  living  epistle  of  the  human 
heart.  So  subjects  which  are  simple  and  experi- 
mental are  easily  taken  up  and  followed  by  the 
people. 

5.  It  will  be  well  to  keep  a  list  of  the  topics  used 
in  the  prayer  meeting.  By  referring  to  it  at  inter- 
vals you  will  see  what  subjects  have  not  received 
attention,  and  so  will  be  led  to  vary  your  themes 
and  add  to  their  numbers.  Once  a  month  you 
should  set  apart  an  evening  for  a  missionary  meet- 
ing. Let  it  be  of  all  the  meetings  the  one  for  which 
you  make  the  most  careful  preparation.  Appoint  a 
committee  to  be  especially  responsible  for  it.  Let 
the  members  of  this  committee  keep  themselves 
posted  in  the  news  from  the  various  mission  fields. 
At  the  beginning  of  each  year  apportion  the  fields 
upon  which  reports  are  to  be  made.  Occasionally 
call  for  a  word  from  each  representative  as  to  his 
special  mission,  Indian,  Burmese,  Chinese,  Japa- 
nese, African,  and  so  on.  At  other  times  occupy 
the  evening  mainly  with  one  field.  The  "  Mission- 
ary Magazine  "  should  be  circulated  and  its  con- 
tents mastered,  but  not  a  line  should  be  read  at  the 
meeting.  Let  all  be  extemporaneous.  Now  and 
then  take  home  missions,  or  again  have  a  field  day 


264  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

for  work  in  Sunday-school  or  missions  of  your  own 
church.  Be  sure  to  have  a  large  map,  conspicu- 
ously displayed  and  constantly  used. 

6,  Announce  subjects  from  one  prayer  meeting  to 
the  next,  and  also  announce  them  at  the  Sunday 
services.  Prepare  the  people  for  that  on  which 
they  will  be  called  upon  to  speak  and  pray.  Yet 
unless  you  are  engaged  in  the  continuous  study  of 
some  book  of  the  Bible  it  is  not  wise  to  lay  out 
formal  plans  for  many  weeks  ahead.  Each  prayer 
meeting  belongs  to  the  week  in  which  it  is  held, 
and  no  doubt  there  is  reason  in  the  complaint  of  a 
regular  attendant  of  these  meetings  for  half  a  cen- 
tury when  he  says,  "  Ministers  kill  prayer  meet- 
ings by  taking  too  much  care  of  them  ;  just  as  I 
have  known  doctors  kill  children  by  too  much 
treatment.  Prayer  meetings  would  have  more  real 
life  and  efficiency  if  trusted  more  to  the  Holy  Spirit 
— to  Christ  in  the  hearts  of  real  Christians  pre- 
sent."^ At  no  other  meeting  does  the  minister  so 
certainly  feel  the  pulse  of  his  people  as  here.  It 
may  be  well  to  have  a  letter  box  in  the  vestibule 
of  the  church  and  invite  the  congregation  to  drop 
in  topics,  questions,  special  requests  for  prayer,  and 
notes  on  matters  of  personal  or  common  interest. 

.        In  conclusion  I  would  urge  you  to  magnify  the 
[|    prayer  meeting.     No  meeting  of  your  church  can 

;    you  less  afford  to  slight.     From  it  you  will  yourself 

1  See  Baldwin,  "  Forty-one  Years'  Pastorate  "  ;  L.  O.  Thompson,  "  The 
Prayer  Meeting":  "Parish  Problems";  Spurgeon's  "Lectures  to  my 
Students"  ;   T.  L.  Cuyler,  "  How  to  be  a  Pastor." 


THE  PRAYER   MEETING  265 

gain  the  most  refreshment.  Yet  no  meeting  is 
more  likely  to  vary  in  its  character,  in  the  respon- 
siveness of  the  people,  in  the  element  of  life,  in 
directness  of  aim  and  business-like  alertness. 
Should  it  occasionally  lag  or  languish,  you  need 
neither  be  surprised  nor  despondent.  There  are 
tides  to  prayer  meetings  ;  they  are  not  always  taken 
at  the  flood.  When  the  meeting  is  flat  and  sluggish 
you  can  by  such  methods  as  have  already  been  sug- 
gested do  much  to  infuse  fresh  life  into  it.  But  do 
not  put  too  much  trust  in  human  means  or  well- 
devised  machinery.  After  all,  the  tides  are  moved 
from  above.  Surely  of  the  prayer  meeting  is  the 
promise  especially  true,  "Where  two  or  three  are 
gathered  together  in  my  name,  there  am  I  in  the 
midst  of  them.'"  Be  more  anxious  for  the  pres- 
ence of  Christ  than  for  anything  else.  If  it  is  true, 
as  Augustine  says,  that  where  he  is  there  is  the 
church,  not  less  true  is  it  that  where  he  is  there  is 
the  prayer  meeting.  To  advance  his  glory  gathered 
the  first  church  prayer  meetings,  as  they  are  re- 
corded in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  The  brethren 
who  met  on  the  eve  of  Pentecost,  and  soon  after 
under  the  shadow  of  persecution,  spoke  to  him  as 
one  present  in  their  gatherings.  Glorify  Christ, 
and  their  experience  will  surely  be  yours  also, 
"  You  cannot  speak  in  his  name,"  Dr.  R.  S.  Storrs 
says,  "  but  you  will  speak  in  his  ear." 

1  Matt.  18  :  20, 


NDEX  OF  AUTHORS  QUOTED 


Adams,  N  ,  8. 
Alexander,  Dr.,  50. 
Anderson,  Dr.  G.  W.,  226. 
Aquinas,  Thomas,  134. 
Arthur,  — ,  102. 

Baldwin,  G.  C,  gg,  224,  225,  264. 

Barrow,  147. 

Basil,  160. 

Beecher,  H.  W.,  38,  72,  161,  165. 

Beecher,  Lyman,  118,  193. 

Blackie,  J.  S.,  164. 

Boyd,  A.  K.  H.,  69. 

Brooks,  Phillips,  4,  30,  41,  208,  213. 

Brown,  Dr.  Hugh  Stowell,  259 

Brown,  Dr.  John,  233. 

Bushnell,  H,,  86,  250. 

Burdette,  R.  J.,  24,  36,  38. 

Byington,  E.  H.,  81 

Carroll,  Lewis,  33. 
Chalmers,  T.,  57. 
Clark,  Dorus,  181. 
Coleridge,  S  T.,  89. 
Comer,  John,  173. 
Culross,  Dr.,  166. 
Cuyler,  Dr  Theo  ,  256. 

Dale,    R.  W.,  4,  79,  105,  m,  132,  159, 

161,  181,  185,  233,  234. 
Deems,  Dr.  C.  S.,  150. 
Doddridge,  179. 
Duffield,  194. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  162,  176. 
Eliot,  George,  10,  72. 
Elson,  194,  196,  197. 
Emerson,  R.  W.,  89. 


Fairbairn,  Dr.,  125. 
Farrar,  F.  W.,  149. 

Goodell,  C.  L.,  36. 
Guthrie,  W.,  58,  94. 

Hall,  John,  27. 
Hall,  Newman,  140. 
Hall,  Robert,  59,  208.  257 
Hawthorne,  N.,  46. 
Benson,  Dr.  P.  S.,  257. 
Herbert,  George,  26,  163. 
Hill,  A.  S.,  114. 
Hinton,  J.  H.,  152. 
Holmes,  O.  W.,  182,  187,  191. 
Hood,  E.  P.,  189. 
Hopkins,  S.  M.,  loi. 
Hughes,  Thomas,  86. 
Huntingdon,  W  ,  188. 

Irving,  Edward,  iii. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  112. 
Julian,  J.,  170. 

Ker.  Dr.,  215. 
Kern,  140,  192. 
Kirk,  Dr.  E.  N.,  92. 
Kittridge,  Dr.  A.  E.,  260. 

Lind,  Jenny,  170. 
Longfellow,  H.  W.,  i6q. 
Luther,  Martin,  3,  156,  167,  168 

Martyr,  Justin,  83. 
Mather,  Increase,  148. 
Mill,  J.  S..  15. 

267 


268 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS  QUOTED 


Moody,  Dwight  L.,  5,  206,  207,  251. 
Montgomery,  J.,  68. 
Munger,  Dr.  T.  T.,  241. 

Newton,  John,  171. 
Nicoll,  Dr.  Robertson,  248 

Parker,  Joseph,  132,  240. 
Parkhurst,  C.  H.,  133,  204,  2og. 
Payson,  Edward,  97. 
Phelps,  Austin,  155,  163,  183,  210. 
Phillips,  Wendell,  12. 
Pulsford,  Dr.  W.,  17. 

Robertson  of  Irvine,  161. 
Robinson,  R.,  221,  225. 
Rutherford,  135. 
Ryland,  John,  174. 

Seebohm,  145. 
Sheldon,  C.  M.,  211. 
Smith,  Geo.  A.,  186. 
Smith,  Sydney, 

Spurgeon,  Charles   H  ,  5,    113,    115, 
136,  156,  213,  251,  252,  261,  262. 


Stalker,  Dr.  James,  164. 
Stanford,  Dr..  167,  174,  253,  258. 
Stanley,  Dean,  139. 
Stead,  W.  T.,  173. 
Stevenson,  R.  L.,  121,  122. 
Storrs,  R.  S.,  210,  265. 
Strong,  A.  H.,  221. 

Taylor,  Isaac,  4. 
Taylor,  W.  M.,  97. 
Tennyson,  A.,  133. 
Trapp,  John,  97. 
Tucker,  Dr.,  11. 
Tupper,  Dr.  Kerr  B.,  252. 

Van  Dyke,  Henry,  38. 

Walker,  Williston,  71,  147. 
Walton,  Isaac,  22,  163. 
Watts,  Isaac,  133,  184,  189,  194, 
Wayland,  Francis,  95,  216. 
Wesley,  John,  216. 
Wigglesworth,  M.,  182,  183 
Wordsworth,  W.,  18. 


INDEX 


Amen,   use    of    congregational,   85, 

137. 
Announcements:   of  service,  54; 

from  pulpit,  5g. 
Architecture,  influence  of,  35. 
Authority  for  worship,  10. 

Baptism   service:   models   for,  221; 

advertising,    221  ;    time    of,    222 , 

directions  to  candidate  for,  223  ; 

should  be  conducted  by  minister. 

223;   use  of  special,  223;   sermon 

on  occasion  of,  224  ;  directions  for 

ceremony  of,  224  ;  music  of,  226  ; 

spirit  of,  226  ;  certificate  of,  227. 
Benediction  :  form  of,  138  ;  spirit  of, 

139;  manner  during,    140;    pause 

after,  140. 
Bible:    congregational   use   of,   84; 

prayers  of,  Qg. 

Choir,  relation  of  minister  to,  168. 

Church,  respect  for,  31. 

Collection,  as  an  act  of  worship,  55. 

Congregation:  unity  of,  21;  indi- 
viduality of,  21  ;  training  of,  21  ; 
behavior  of,  24;  reverence  of, 
30;  hospitality  of,  35;  sociability 
of,  37 ;  culture  of,  75  ;  benefit  of 
music  to,  164 ;  responsiveness  of 
(see  Response). 

Criticism,  danger  of  arousing  spirit 
of,  7g,  80. 

Decorum  of  minister,  49. 
Directness  in  prayer,  123. 
Dress  of  minister,  45- 


Duty,  change  in  conception  of  Chris- 
tian, 204. 

Fellowship:  helped  by  congrega- 
tional response,  85,  86;  hand  of, 
235. 

Harmony  between  parts  of  service, 
17. 

Hospitality,  training  of  congrega- 
tion in,  35,  37. 

Hymns  :  choice  of,  15, 181, 192  ;  con- 
gregational character  of,  68,  80  ; 
their  power  illustrated  by  history, 
161  ;  controversy  over,  166 ;  defi- 
nition of,  170;  literature  of,  172; 
lists  of,  173 ;  influence  of,  179 ; 
care  in  the  choice  of,  181 ;  doc- 
trine of,  182;  sentiment  of,  183; 
spirit  of  praise  in,  185  ;  caution 
against  subjective,  186;  caution 
against  didactic,  187;  style  of, 
188;  confused  metaphors  in,  191; 
arrangement  of,  192 ;  announce- 
ment of,  193  ;  the  reading  of,  194, 
195  ;  during  baptism,  226  ;  during 
the  Lord's  Supper,  236,  238;  at 
prayer  meeting,  259. 

Invocation,  129. 
Irreverence,  treatment  of,  28. 

Kneeling  during  prayer,  33,  log. 

Minister:   his  influence  on  congre- 
gation, 12,  16  ;  his  preparation  for 
service,  12;  decorum  of,  13,  log ; 
269 


270 


INDEX 


his  aim  in  worship,  i6  ;  responsible 
for  training  of  congregation,  22  ; 
respect  for,  30  ;  dress  of,  45  ;  man- 
ner of,  47,  140;  habits  of,  48;  his 
relation  to  congregation,  51,  7g  ; 
helped  by  congregational  re- 
sponse, 85  ;  prayers  of,  8g  ;  his  re- 
lation to  choir,  168  ;  his  knowledge 
of  music,  169;  his  responsibility 
for  music,  179;  his  choice  of 
hymns,  181,  192 ;  singing  of,  195  . 
should  conduct  entire  service  of 
baptism,  223  ;  should  lead  prayer 
meeting,  253. 
Music,  church:  its  province.  14. 
importance  of,  159  ;  benefit  to  con- 
gregation of,  164  ;  its  effect  upon 
service,  164,-  personal  interest  of 
minister  in,  165  ;  prejudice  against. 
165 ;  a  chair  of,  167 ,  the  choir 
and,  168.  169  ;  education  of  minis- 
ter in,  169;  kinds  of,  171,  172; 
the  minister's  interest  in,  175; 
education  of  congregation  in,  175  ; 
prominent  in  public  service,  176  ; 
responsibility  of  minister  for,  179  ; 
of  evening  service,  217  ;  during 
baptism,  226.     (See  Hymns.) 

Order:  of  worship,  52,  54,  61;  of 
petition  in  prayer,  135;  of  prayer- 
meeting  service,  150. 

Personalities  In  prayer,  118. 
Prayer:  in  preparation  for  Sunday. 

32;  silent,  32,  49,  259     Lord's,  82. 

129  :  of  Stevenson,  121 ;  response 

to,  253. 
Prayer,  public :  preparation  for,  8g, 

95,  98,  99,  102;   importance  of,  89  ; 

unsatisfactory  character  of  much, 

90  ;   power  of,  92  ;   models  of,  gg  ; 

written,  100;  inclusiveness  of,  102. 

136;    personal    requests    in,    103. 

aids  to,  104  ;  demeanor  of  minister 

during,    109;     language    of,    no: 

phrases  to  be  avoided  in,  114-116  ; 


repetition  in,  115  ;  tendency  to 
preach  in,  117;  characteristics  of, 
118;  confidence  in,  122;  direct- 
ness in,  123 ;  use  of  invocation 
in,  129,  130;  length  of,  131  ;  parts 
of,  133;  order  of  petition  in,  135; 
freshness  in,  136  ;  after  sermon, 
138;  benediction  in,  138  (See 
Prayer  meeting.) 

Prayer  meeting;  importance  of,  247, 
264;  indicates  spiritual  condition 
of  church,  247  ;  importance  of 
minor  details  of,  249  ,  order  of  serv- 
ice for,  250;  social  and  spiritual 
characteristics  of,  250;  cheerful- 
ness of,  252  ;  should  be  business- 
like, 252;  management  of,  253; 
necessity  of  leadership  in,  253; 
objectionable  speakers  in,  254 ; 
necessity  of  life  in,  255  ;  encour- 
agement to  participate  in,  255 ; 
motto  for,  256  ;  p  r  a  y  e  r  s  of ,  256  ; 
proportion  of  prayer  and  confer- 
ence in,  256  ;  egotism  in,  257 ; 
character  of  prayer  at,  258,  259  ; 
singing  at,  259  ;  address  at,  261  ; 
missionary  talks  at,  263;  announce- 
ment of  topics  for,  264 

Preparation ;  for  Sunday,  32 :  lor 
prayer,  89,  95,  g8,  gg,  102. 

Protestantism  :  its  meaning,  71  ;  its 
effect  upon  congregational 
response,  71. 

Psalms  :  responsive  reading  of,  81  ; 
in  New  England,  ig6. 

Pulpit,  furniture  of,  47. 

Punctuality  of  minister,  48. 

Puritan  order  of  worship,  61,  7g. 

Reformation:  its  emphasis  upon 
preaching,  3  ;  power  of  song  in, 
161. 

Register  of  pastor,  55. 

Repetition  in  prayer,  115. 

Respect:  for  minister,  30;  for  Sun- 
day, 31  ;  for  church,  31  ;  for  serv- 
ice, 32.     (See  Reverence.) 


INDEX 


271 


Response,  congregational :  its  help- 
fulness to  minister,  41  ;  purpose  of, 
67  ;  common  to  all  sects,  67  ;  neg- 
lect of,  68;  its  value  illustrated, 
6g ;  effect  of  Protestantism  upon, 
71  ;  its  growtli,  73  ;  reasons  for, 
74  ;  naturalness  of,  74  ;  in  temple 
service,  75  ;  influenced  by  Sun- 
day-school, 76 ;  how  to  meet  de- 
mand for,  78 ;  benefits  of,  84. 

Reverence:  necessity  for,  n,  32. 
lack  of,  12 ;  training  in,  28,  30 , 
of  minister,  4g ;  in  prayer,  118 
(See  Respect.) 

Sabbath  :  respect  for,  31  ;  sanctity 
of,  205. 

Scripture-reading:  its  purpose,  67, 
congregational  use  of  Bibles  dur- 
ing, 84  ;  model  of,  143  ;  value  of. 
143  ;  testimony  to  value  of,  145  • 
preparation  for,  148  ;  its  proportion 
in  service,  151  ,  selection  of,  152  ; 
announcement  of,  154,  e.xposition 
during,  155, 

Seats,  free,  216 

Sermon  :  its  relation  to  other  parts 
of  service,  3,  53;  its  purpose,  67; 
helped  by  c  on  gregat  i  on  a  I  re- 
sponse, 85;  time  needed  for  its 
composition,  208;  difference  be- 
tween morning  and  evening,  2og  ; 
good  work  needed  on  second,  211  ; 
necessity  of,  215;  before  baptism, 
224  ;  bearing  on  Lord's  Supper,  242 

Service :  respect  for,  32 ;  arrange- 
ment of,  52  ;  distribution  of,  53,  58  : 
length  of,  56 ;  order  of,  52,  54,  61  , 
of  temple,  75 ;  opening  of,  129  , 
prayers  of,  i2g ;  printed  order  of. 
217;  of  baptism,  221;  of  Lord's 
Supper,  231.  (See  Prayer  meeting.) 

Service,  evening  :  change  in  feeling 


concerning,  201 ;  altered  condi- 
tions attending.  203,  204;  its  tax 
upon  minister,  205.  2og  ;  necessity 
for,  206;  its  advantages  over 
morning  service,  206,  207  ;  sugges- 
tions for,  208;  nature  of,  consid- 
ered, 212,  213  ;  subjects  of  lectures 
for,  214;  counsels  regarding,  216; 
part  to  be  taken  by  church  in,  218. 

Singing,  value  of  cultivating  taste 
for,  i6g.     (See  Hymns,  Music  ) 

Sunday-school,  its  influence  upon 
congregational  response,  76. 

Supper,  Lord's:  authority  for,  231  ; 
origin  of  name  of,  231  ;  scriptural 
aspects  of,  232  :  sacrificial  concep- 
tion of,  232;  memorial  conception 
of,  233 ;  family  conception  of,  233 ; 
personal  aspect  of,  233;  order  of, 
235;  invitation  to,  235;  parts  of 
service  of,  236  ;  conclusion  of,  238  ; 
time  of,  239  ;  wine  for,  240  ;  prepa- 
ration of  deacons  for,  241  ;  de- 
meanor of  minister  during,  241  ; 
quickening  character  of,  241 ;  reg- 
istration of  participants  in,  242  ; 
sermon  topics  bearing  on,  242. 

Ushers,  selection  of,  36. 

Visiting,  of  strangers,  36. 

Worship  :  defined,  3  ;  place  of  ser- 
mon in,  3;  importance  of,  4;  in- 
tention of  term,  6;  Christian,  6; 
public,  7  ;  congregational  charac- 
ter of,  g,  14, 68  (see  Fellowship.  Re- 
sponse); authority  for.  10;  should 
be  devout,  n  ;  should  be  inspir- 
ing, 13 ;  province  of  music  in,  14  ; 
should  be  intelligent,  15  ;  purpose 
of,  16,  67;  should  be  restful,  16; 
order  of,  52,  54,  61. 


^f^AT/Qv 


1^ 


